
CLIVE 
STINGS 




Class HSi-l 



/\:1 



Book - /^l^ 



Gopyriglit}!^- 



1 4 i ^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MtrniVB iEttgliaJy ®?xt0 



ESSAYS ON LORD CLIVE 
AND WARREN HASTINGS 



BY 

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 



EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
BY CORNELIA BEARE, INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH, 
WADLEIGH HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY 




NEW YORK 
CHARLES E. MERRILL CO. 

44-60 East Twenty-third Street 






Copyright, 1910 

BY 

CHARLES E. MERRILL CO. 



CCI.A25G695 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 

Biographical Sketch 5 

Critical Opinions 11 

Principal Works . 12 

References 14 

Historical Sketch of India 15 

Peoples of India 18 

References on India 19 

Essay on Lord Clive 23 

Essay on Warren Hastings ; 143 

Notes 

Notes on Lord Clive 309 

Notes on Warren Hastings 320 

Questions on Lord Macaulay 328 

Questions on the Text 329 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
MttniV& iEngltHli U^tnU 

This series of books will include in complete editions those 
masterpieces of English Literature that are best adapted for the 
use of schools and colleges. The editors of the several volumes 
will be chosen for their special qualifications in connection with 
the texts to be issued under their individual supervision, but 
famiUarity with the practical needs of the classroom, no less than 
sound scholarship, will characterize the editing of every book 
in the series. 

In connection with each text, a critical and historical intro- 
duction, including a sketch of the life of the author and his re- 
lation to the thought of his time, critical opinions of the work in 
question chosen from the great body of English criticism, and, 
where possible, a portrait of the author, will be given. Ample 
explanatory notes of such passages in the text as call for special 
attention will be supplied, but irrelevant annotation and explana- 
tions of the obvious will be rigidly excluded. 

CHARLES E. MERRILL CO. 



INTRODUCTION 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Thomas Babington Macaulay, whose father was Zachary 
Macaulay — famous for his advocacy of the abohtion of slavery, 
was born at Rothley Temple, in Leicestershire, towards the end 
of 1800. From his infancy he showed a precocity that was simply 
extraordinary. He not only acquired knowledge rapidly, but he 
possessed a marvelous power of working it up into literary form, 
and his facile pen produced compositions in prose and in verse, 
histories, odes, and hymns. From the time that he was three 
years old he read incessantly, for the most part lying on the rug 
before the fire with his book on the ground, and a piece of bread 
and butter in his hand. It is told of him that when a boy of four, 
and on a visit with his father, he was unfortunate enough to have 
a cup of hot coffee overturned on his legs, and when his hostess, 
in her sympathetic kindness, asked shortly after how he was feel- 
ing, he looked up in her face and said, '' Thank you, madam, the 
agony is abated." At seven he wrote a compendium of Universal 
History. At eight he was so fired with the Lay and with Mar- 
mion that he wrote three cantos of a poem in imitation of Scott's 
manner, and called it the " Battle of Cheviot." And he had many 
other literary projects, in all of which he showed perfect cor- 
rectness both in grammar and in spelling, made his meaning 
uniformly clear, and was scrupulously accurate in his punctua- 
tion. 

With all this cleverness he was not conceited. His parents, and 
particularly his mother, were most judicious in their treatment. 
They never encouraged him to display his powers of conversa- 
tion, and they abstained from every kind of remark that might 



6 INTRODUCTION 

help him to think himself different from other boys. One result 
was that throughout his life he was free from hterary vanity; 
another was that he habitually overestimated the knowledge of 
others. When he said in his essays that every schoolboy knew 
this and that fact in history, he was judging their information by 
his own vast intellectual stores. 

At the age of twelve, Macaulay was sent to a private school in 
the neighborhood of Cambridge. There he laid the foundation of 
his future scholarship, and though fully occupied with his school 
work — chiefly Latin, Greek, and mathematics — ^he found time to 
gratify his insatiable thirst for general literature. He read at ran- 
dom and without restraint, but with an apparent partiality for 
the lighter and more attractive books. Poetry and prose fiction 
remained throughout his life his favorite reading. On subjects 
of this nature he displayed a most unerring memory, as well as 
the capacity for taking in at a glance the contents of a printed 
page. Whatever caught his fancy he remembered, as well as 
though he had consciously got it by heart. He once said, that if 
all the copies of Paradise Lost and the Pilgrim's Progress were to 
be destroyed, he would from memory alone undertake to repro- 
duce both. 

In 1818 Macaulay went from school to the university — ^to Trin- 
ity College, Cambridge. But here the studies were not to his 
mind. He had no liking for mathematics, and was nowhere as a 
mathematical student. His inclination was wholly for literature, 
and he gained various high distinctions in that department. It 
was unfortunate for him that he had no severe discipline in scien- 
tific method; to his disproportionate partiality for the lighter 
sides of literature must be attributed his want of philosophic 
grasp, his dislike of arduous speculations, and his want of cour- 
age in facing intellectual problems. 

The private life of Cambridge had a much greater influence on 
him than the recognized studies of the place. He made many 
friends. His social qualities and his conversational powers were 
widely exercised and largely developed. He became, too, a bril- 
liant member of the Union Debating Society, and here politics 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 7 

claimed his attention. Altogether he gave himself more to the 
enjoyment of all that was stirring around him than to the taking 
of university honors. In 1824, however, he was elected a Fellow, 
and began to take pupils. Further, he sought a wider field for 
his literary labors, and contributed papers to some of the maga- 
zines — ^mostly to Knight's Quarterly Magazine. Chief among 
these contributions are "Ivry," and "Naseby" in spirited verse, 
and the conversation between Cowley and Milton, in as splendid 
prose. 

When Macaulay went to Cambridge, his father seemed in afflu- 
ent circumstances, but the slave-trade agitation engrossed his 
time and his energy, and by and by there came on the family 
commercial ruin. This was a blow to the eldest son, but he bore 
up bravely, brought sunshine and happiness into the depressed 
household, and proceeded to retrieve their position with stern 
fortitude. He ultimately paid off his father's debts. 

Though called to the bar in 1826, he did not take kindly to the 
law, and soon renounced it for an employment more congenial — 
literature. Already in 1824 he had been invited to write for the 
Edinburgh Review, and in August, 1825, appeared in that maga- 
zine his article on Milton, which created a sensation, and made 
the critics aware of the advent of a new literary power. This first 
success he followed up rapidly, and besides giving new life to the 
periodical, he soon gained for himself a name of note. In 1828 
he was made a Commissioner of Bankruptcy, and in 1830 was 
elected M. P. for Calne. In the Reformed Parliament he sat for 
Leeds. 

He entered Parliament at an opportune period, and was in the 
thick of the great Reform conflict. His speeches on the Reform 
Bill raised him to the first rank as an orator, and gained for him 
official posts. It was while burdened with these severe public 
labors that he wrote thirteen (from Montgomery to Pitt) of the 
Edinburgh Review Essays. Thus he went on for four years, but 
the narrow circumstances of his family induced him to accept the 
lucrative post of legal adviser to the Supreme Council of India. 
This necessitated his going to India, which was clearly adverse to 



8 INTRODUCTION 

his prospects at home; yet the certainty of returning with £20,000 
saved from his large salary was sufficient inducement to make 
the sacrifice, and he sailed February 15, 1834. 

In India he maintained his reputation as a hard worker. Be- 
sides his official duties as a Member of Council, he undertook the 
additional burden of acting as chairman in two important com- 
mittees, and it is in connection with one of these — the committee 
appointed to draw up the new codes — that he has his chief title to 
fame as an Indian statesman. The New Penal Code was in great 
part his work, and proves his wide acquaintance with English 
Criminal Law. He also took great part in the work of the Com- 
mittee of Public Instruction, and was chiefly instrumental in in- 
troducing English studies among the native population. But he 
was not popular in Calcutta. Certain changes he helped to intro- 
duce roused the feeling of the EngHsh residents against him, and 
he was attacked in the most scurrilous way. 

In 1838 he was back in England. Meanwhile he had written 
two more essays for the Edinburgh, one on Mackintosh and one 
on Bacon, and he was hardly home when there appeared another, 
that on Sir W. Temple. After spending the winter in Italy, he 
reviewed in 1839 Mr. Gladstone's book on Church and State, and 
might have settled down to purely literary life, but once more he 
was drawn into politics. Elected as Member for Edinburgh, he 
was soon admitted into the Cabinet as Secretary-at-War to the 
Whig Ministry of Lord Melbourne. The position, however, was 
no gain to Macaulay. He purposed to write " A History of Eng- 
land, from the accession of King James II, down to a time which 
is within the memory of men still living," and his official duties 
forced him to lay this project aside for the present. 

Fortunately Lord Melbourne's ministry did not last long; it fell 
in 1841, and Macaulay was released from office. Still retaining 
his seat for Edinburgh, and speaking occasionally in the House 
he was free to follow his natural bent. 

His leisure hours were given as usual to essay-work for the 
Edinburgh, and he wrote in succession " Clive," " Hastings," 
"■ Frederick the Great," " Addison," '' Chatham," etc. But in 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 9 

1844 his connection with the Review came to an end, and he 
wrote no more for the Blue and Yellow, as it was called. In 
1841 he had put forth a volume of poems — ^the Lays of Ancient 
Rome — ^not without misgivings as to the result. But the fresh 
and vigorous language at once carried the volume into popularity, 
and it had an enormous sale. 

On a change of government in 1846, Macaulay, at the request 
of Lord John Russell, again became a Cabinet Minister, this time 
as Paymaster-General of the Army, and having to seek re-election 
from his constituents, went down to Scotland for the purpose. 
After a severe contest, and notwithstanding a growing unpopu- 
larity, he was successful. But at the general election of the fol- 
lowing year the forces in opposition to him redoubled their en- 
ergy, and he was defeated. 

This was the real end of his political life. Although pressed 
to contest other seats, he resolutely declined, and for the next 
few years worked "doggedly" at his History. In 1848 appeared 
the first two volumes, which had an immense success, 13,000 
copies being sold in less than four months. The same year he 
was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University. By 1852 the 
people of Edinburgh had repented the rejection of their famous 
Member, and took steps to re-elect him free of expense; and so 
thoroughly was the scheme carried out that Macaulay, without 
having made a single speech, and without having visited the city, 
was returned triumphantly at the top of the poll. Through the 
length and breadth of the land the news was hailed with satisfac- 
tion, as an act of justice for an undeserved sHght in the past. 
The result was very flattering to Macaulay, but he never really re- 
turned to political life as in his younger days. Moreover, forty 
years of incessant intellectual labors had begun to undermine his 
health, and he was now unequal to the fatigues that formerly were 
a pleasure to him. Accordingly in 1856, after having brought out 
the third and fourth volumes of his history, of which in a few 
months 25,000 copies were sold, he resigned his seat, and yield- 
ing too late obedience to all interested in his welfare, gave him- 
self up to the enjoyment of that ease which he had faithfully 



10 INTRODUCTION 

earned. Then in 1857 he was created a Peer — Baron Macaulay of 
Rothley, his birthplace. Still struggling on with his History in 
the intermissions of his malady, he died suddenly on December 28, 
1859. He was only fifty-nine — the victim of an appetite for work, 
insatiable and unfortunately too long ungoverned. 



CRITICAL OPINIONS 

"I always prophesied his greatness, from the first moment I 
saw him, then a very young and unknown man. There are no 
Hmits to his knowledge, on small subjects as well as great. He is 
like a book in breeches." — Sydney Smith 

'' His learning is prodigious; and perhaps the chief defects of his 
composition arise from the exuberant riches of the stores from 
which they are drawn. When warmed in his subject, he is 
thoroughly in earnest, and his language, in consequence, goes di- 
rect to the heart." — Alison 

" The exact style, the antitheses of ideas, the harmonious con- 
struction, the artfully balanced paragraphs, the vigorous sum- 
maries, the regular sequence of thoughts, the frequent compari- 
sons, the fine arrangement of the whole — not an idea or phrase 
of his writings in which the talent and the desire to explain does 
not shine forth." — Taine 

''Behind the external show and glittering vesture of his 
thoughts — beneath all his pomp of diction, aptness of illustra- 
tion, splendor of imagery, and epigrammatic point and glare — 
a careful eye can easily discern the movement of a powerful and 
cultivated intellect, as it successively appears in the well-trained 
logician, the discriminating critic, the comprehensive thinker, 
the practical and far-sighted statesman, and the student of uni- 
versal hterature." — E. P. Whipple 

" Macaulay's essays, are remarkable for their brilliant rhetor- 
ical power, their splendid tone of coloring, and their affluence of 
illustration with a wide range of reading, and the most docile 
and retentive memory. He pours over his theme all the treasures 
of a richly-stored mind, and sheds hght upon it from all quarters. 
He excels in the delineation of historical characters, and in the 
art of carrying his reader into a distant period and reproducing 
the past with the distinctness of the present."— (reorgfe S. Hillard 

11 



PRINCIPAL WORKS 

Macaulay excelled as a poet, essayist, orator, and histo- 
rian. 

As a Poet: Of the first fruits of our author's poetical genius per- 
haps the most admired are The Battle of Ivry and The Spanish 
Armada. In 1842, Macaulay gave to the world his Lays of 
Ancient Rome, consisting of the soul-stirring narrations of 
"Horatius Codes," "Battle of the Lake Regillus," "Death of 
Virginia," and " Prophecy of Capys." 

As an Essayist: Macaulay's essay on Milton, published in the 
Edinburgh Review for August, 1825, was followed by essays, in all 
about forty, from the same pen for nearly a score of years, ar- 
ticles unsurpassed in varied and accurate learning, and in fervid 
eloquence and brilliancy, by any composition of the kind in the 
English language. The following is a list of the principal essays, 
with the years of publication, for the most part published in the 
Edinburgh Review: "Milton," 1825; "Machiavelli," 1827; "Dry- 
den," 1828; "History," 1828; " Hallam's Constitutional History," 
1828; "Southey's Colloquies on Society," 1830; "Montgomery's 
Poems," 1830; "Southey's Edition of Bunyan's The Pilgrim's 
Progress," 1830; "Moore's Byron," 1831; "Boswell's Life of 
Dr. Johnson," 1831; "Nugent's Hampden," 1831; "Lord Bur- 
leigh and his Times," 1832; "Mirabeau," 1832; "War of the 
Spanish Succession," 1833; "Horace Walpole," 1833; "Earl of 
Chatham," 1834; "Sir James Mackintosh," 1835; "Lord Bacon," 
1837; "Sir William Temple," 1838; "Church and State," 1839; 
"Lord Clive," 1840; "Ranke's History of the Popes," 1840; 
"Comic Dramatists of the Restoration," 1841; "Lord Holland," 
1841; "Warren Hastings," October, 1841; " Frederick the Great," 
1842; "Madame D'Arblay," 1843; "Joseph Addison," 1843; 

12 



PRINCIPAL WORKS 13 

"Earl of Chatham," 1844; "Barere's Memoirs," 1844; "Athe- 
nian Orators;" "Mitford's Greece," and "Mill's Essay on Gov- 
ernment." 

Biographies of Dr. Johnson, Bunyan, William Pitt, Goldsmith, 
and others, written for the eighth edition of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica (1857-1858), were among the latest productions of 
Macaulay's pen. 

As an Orator: Macaulay's speeches, parliamentary and mis- 
cellaneous, number nearly one hundred, generally held to be 
some of the most eloquent and instructive ever delivered before 
the English public. 

As a Historian: In 1848 appeared the first two volumes of 
Macaulay's History of England, "from the accession of King 
James the Second down to a time which is within the memory 
of men still living." The third and fourth volumes were issued 
in 1855. The success of these volumes was great and immediate. 
A fifth volume, comprising all that he left ready for the press, 
and bringing the work down to the end of the year 1701, was 
published after his death. The great work thus remains a frag- 
ment of that originally projected. 



REFERENCES 

For any desired information concerning Macaulay and his 
writings, consult, besides the ordinary reference books, Tre- 
velyan's Life of Macaulay, a work of the deepest interest and full 
of all manner of details about the personal life of England's great 
historian. There is a little book by Adams, called Life Sketches 
of Macaulay, interesting from its anecdotes and sketches of 
Macaulay's personal career. E. P. Whipple has written one of 
the ablest criticisms of Macaulay's characteristics as an essayist 
which has ever been published. This article, from which we 
quote elsewhere, and for which Macaulay expressed great ad- 
miration, can be found in the first volume of Whipple's Essays. 
See also a scholarly essay by Peter Bayne; consult very full 
articles in Allibone, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the nu- 
merous references in Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. 



14 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF INDIA 

British India includes Hindustan and several provinces on the 
eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. Its extent from the great 
mountain barrier on the north to Cape Comorin, its southern ex- 
tremity, is about 1800 miles; and from the western boundary of 
Scinde to Pegu, about 1900 miles. Its area is about 1,000,000 
square miles, with a coast line of nearly 4500 miles; and it con- 
tains a population of about 156,000,000. The king bears the 
title of Emperor of India, conferred for the first time January 1, 
1877. Besides the actual dependencies under direct British ad- 
ministration, there are the " Native States " under the protection 
of the British government, and acknowledging the paramount 
sovereignty of the crown. These include about one hundred 
and fifty feudatory states and principalities, containing nearly 
half a million square miles and about 52,000,000 inhabitants. 

The Indian executive government is administered by the vice- 
roy or governor-general appointed by the crown, and acting 
under the control of the secretary of state for India. The vice- 
roy is appointed by the crown for a term of six years, and is 
assisted by a council of five ordinary members, three appointed 
by the secretary of state, two by his Majesty's warrant. Each 
of them has charge of a department of the executive. The com- 
mander in chief may be constituted an extraordinary member of 
the council. The legislative council is composed of the members 
of the executive, together with from six to twelve other members, 
one-half of whom must be unconnected with the public service. 
They are nominated for two years by the viceroy. 

The oldest history of India is entirely legendary. It is shrouded 
in mythical narratives, which, though of the highest interest 
from a religious and archaeological point of view, do not en- 

15 



16 INTRODUCTION 

lighten us as to the dates of the personages concerned, or as to 
the reaHty of the facts which they record. 

The Sultan Mahmud, sovereign of the small state of Ghizni, 
was the first conqueror who permanently established the Mo- 
hammedan power in India. In 1186 the House of Ghizni became 
extinct, and the Hindu princes fell one by one before a succession 
of Mohammedan dynasties, whose names and dates are as follows : 

Slave Kings of Delhi (1206-1288). One of these sovereigns, 
Altmish, who ascended the throne in 1211, added the greater 
part of Hindustan proper to his dominions, and in his reign the 
Mongol Genghis Khan devastated the northeastern parts of 
India. In Balin's reign the Mongols made a second irruption into 
Hindustan, but were totally defeated by the monarch's eldest 
son, the heroic Mohammed, who fell in the action. 

The Khiljis and House of Toghlak (1288-1412). In 1290, the 
Mongols made their third and last great irruption into Hindustan, 
but were almost annihilated by Zafir Khan, whose name became 
so proverbial among the Mongols that when their horses started 
they would ask them if they saw the ghost of Zafir Khan. In 
1397, during the reign of the last of the Toghlak kings, the 
Tartar Timur, or Tamerlane, sacked Delhi, and proclaimed him- 
self emperor of India. 

The Syuds (1412-1450). The House of Lodi (1450-1526). To 
the kings of this dynasty succeeded the Great Moguls or House 
of Timur (1526-1707). 

Baber, who had for twenty-two years been sovereign of 
Cabul, invaded India, for the fifth time, towards the end of the 
year 1525, and after doing battle with Sultan Ibrahim on the 
plain of Paniput, April, 1526, entered DeUii in triumph, and es- 
tablished himself as emperor of the Mohammedan dominions in 
India, in right of his ancestor Timur. He died in 1530, and was 
succeeded by his son Humayun. The celebrated Akbar, son of 
Humayun, became emperor in 1556, and reigned for nearly 
twenty-five years. His son ascended the throne in 1605, and his 
grandson, Shah Jehan, in 1627. In 1658 Shah Jehan was im- 
prisoned by his son, the famous Aurungzebe, who usurped the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF INDIA 17 

imperial power. This remarkable man raised the Mogul empire 
to the highest pitch ^f greatness and splendor, and was the ablest 
and most powerful, as well as the most ambitious and bigoted, of 
his race. The death of Aurungzebe took place in 1707, and the 
decay of the empire, which had begun a few years before then, 
proceeded rapidly. 

A succession of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and 
debauchery, sauntered away life in secluded palaces. Viceroys 
of the Great Mogul formed their provinces into independent 
states; whilst Hindu and Mohammedan adventurers carved out 
kingdoms with the sword. The dismemberment of the Mogul 
empire opened a wide field for ambition and enterprise to the 
nations of Europe. The Venetians, the Genoese, the Portuguese, 
and the Dutch had by turns traded with India; and in 1602 the 
English appeared on the scene. 

In 1653 Madras was raised into a presidency, and in 1668 the 
Island of Bombay — which was the dowry of Charles II 's queen, 
the Infanta Catherine of Portugal — was transferred by the crown 
to the East India Company. The invasion of the Persian, 
Nadir Shah, in 1738, who sacked Delhi, slaughtered its inhabi- 
tants, and carried away the Peacock Throne and vast treasure, 
hastened the fall of the Mogul empire. 

Great jealousy existed between the EngHsh and French, who 
also had established themselves in India. On the declaration of 
war between England and France, hostilities commenced in the 
Madras presidency, nor were they terminated by the peace of 
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The struggle in the Carnatic was con- 
tinued with ardor, under pretext of supporting the claims of rival 
native princes to sovereignty. Clive, the first and most famous 
name on that great muster-roll of British soldiers and statesmen 
who have thrown such luster on the British occupation of India, 
laid the foundation of his country's supremacy in the East. His 
memorable defense of Arcot in 1751, and his subsequent victo- 
ries, broke the spell of French invincibility. For a more detailed 
account of Clive's conduct in India the student is referred to the 
following historic Essay by Macaulay. 



PEOPLES OF INDIA 

At the time of the formation of the East India Company India 
was already inhabited by two contending peoples — the Hindus 
and the Mohammedans. The Hindus comprised first of all 
the aboriginal peoples, — Bhils, Gurkhas, Hill-men as they are 
called to-day, — the original owners of the land, as shown by the 
fact that even yet, when some of the native princes are vested 
with the government of their principality, the ceremony is not 
complete until sealed by a mark made in blood drawn from the 
veins of a Bhil. Next came the Aryan Hindus, the people of 
culture, possessing one of the best civilizations in the world. 
Finally there was added, in the early days of the Christian Era, 
the Scythian element, the last to be absorbed in the Hindu race. 
After the rise of Mohammed's power in Arabia, and its check 
on the field of Tours, the Mohammedan hordes invaded India, 
and after long wars established there a Mohammedan state; 
allied finally with the Tartar Moguls, whose power lasted until 
the death of Arungzebe, although the title of Mogul emperor 
did not become extinct until the death of Mohammed Bahadin 
Shah in 1857. 



18 



REFERENCES ON INDIA 

Hunter. Brief History of Indian Peoples (Rulers of India Series), 

— Clive, Hastings, Dupleix. 
Plimblett. How the British Won India. 
McCarthy. History of Our Own Times. 
J. R. Greene. Short History of English People. 



19 



LORD CLIVE 




L.L. POATES ENGR'6 CO. 



liOngitude 76 



LORD CLIVE 

We have always thought it strange, that while the 
history of the Spanish empire in America is familiarly 
known to all the nations of Europe, the great actions of 
our countrymen in the East should, even among our- 
selves, excite little interest. Every schoolboy knows ^ 
who imprisoned Montezuma,^ and who strangled Ata- 
hualpa. But we doubt whether one in ten, even 
among English gentlemen of highly cultivated minds, 
can tell who won the battle of Buxar,^ who perpetrated 
the massacre of Patna,^ whether Surajah Dowlah ^ 
ruled in Oude or in Travancore, or whether Holkar ^ was 
a Hindoo or a Mussulman. Yet the victories of Cortes 
were gained over savages^ who had no letters, who 
were ignorant of the use of metals, who had not broken 
in a single animal to labor, who wielded no better 
weapons than those which could be made out of sticks, 
flints, and fish-bones, who regarded a horse-soldier as a 
monster half man and half beast, who took a harque- 
busier® for a sorcerer, able to scatter the thunder and 
lightning of the skies. The people of India, when we 
subdued them, were ten times as numerous as the 
Americans whom the Spaniards vanquished, and were 
at the same time quite as highly civilized as the vic- 
torious Spaniards. They had reared cities larger and 

23 



24 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

fairer than Saragossa or Toledo, and buildings more 
beautiful ^ and costly than the cathedral of ^ Seville. 
They could show bankers richer than the richest firms 
of Barcelona or Cadiz, viceroys whose splendor far 
surpassed that of Ferdinand the Catholic,^ myriads of 
cavalry and long trains of artillery which would have 
astonished the Great Captain.^ It might have been ex- 
pected that every Englishman who takes any interest 
in any part of history would be curious to know how 
a handful of his countrymen, separated from their 
home by an immense ocean, subjugated, in the course 
of a few years, one of the greatest empires in the world. ^ 
Yet, unless we greatly err, this subject is to most 
readers, not only insipid, but positively distasteful. 

Perhaps the fault lies partly with the historians. 
Mr. Mill's book,^ though it has undoubtedly great and 
rare merit, is not sufficiently animated and pictur- 
esque to attract those who read for amusement. Orme,^ 
inferior to no English historian in style and power 
of painting, is minute even to tediousness. In one 
volume he allots, on an average, a closely printed 
quarto page to the events of every forty-eight hours. 
The consequence is, that his narrative, though one of 
the most authentic, and one of the most finely written 
in our language, has never been very popular, and is 
now scarcely ever read. 

We fear that the volumes before us will not much 
attract those readers whom Orme and Mill have re- 
pelled. The materials placed at the disposal of Sir 
John Malcolm by the late Lord Powis ^ were indeed of 



LORD CLIVE 25 

great value. But we cannot say that they have been 
very skilfully worked up. It would, however, be un- 
just to criticise with severity a work which, if the 
author had lived to complete and revise it, would prob- 
ably have been improved by condensation and by a 
better arrangement. We are the more disposed to 
perform the pleasing duty of expressing our gratitude 
to the noble family to which the public owes so much 
useful and curious information. 

The effect of the book, even when we make the 
largest allowance for the partiality of those who have 
furnished and of those who have digested the mate- 
rials, is, on the whole, greatly to raise the character 
of Lord Clive. We are far indeed from sympathizing 
with Sir John Malcolm, whose love passes the love 
of biographers,^ and w"ho can see nothing but wisdom 
and justice in the actions of his idol. But we are at 
least equally far from concurring in the severe judg- 
ment of Mr. Mill, who seems to us to show less dis- 
crimination in his account of Clive than in any other 
part of his valuable work. Clive, like most men who 
are born with strong passions and tried by strong 
temptations, committed great faults. But every per- 
son who takes a fair and enlightened view of his 
whole career must admit that our island, so fertile in 
heroes and statesmen, has scarcely ever produced a 
man more truly great either in arms or in council. 

The Clives had been settled, ever since the twelfth 
century, on an estate of no great value, near Market- 
Drayton in Shropshire. In the reign of George the 



26 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

First this moderate but ancient inheritance was pos- 
sessed by Mr. Richard Clive, who seems to have been 
a plain man of no great tact or capacity. He had been 
bred to the law, and divided his time between profes- 
sional business and the avocations of a small proprietor. 
He married a lady from Manchester, of the name of 
Gaskill, and became the father of a very numerous 
family. His eldest son, Robert, the founder of the 
British empire in India, was born at the old seat of his 
ancestors,^ on the twenty-ninth of September, 1725. 

Some lineaments of the character of the man were 
early discerned in the child. There remain letters 
written by his relations when he was in his seventh 
year; and from these letters it appears that, even at 
that early age, his strong will and his fiery passions, 
sustained by a constitutional intrepidity which some- 
times seemed hardly compatible with soundness of 
mind, had begun to cause great uneasiness to his fam- 
ily. "Fighting," says one of his uncles,^ "to which he 
is out of measure addicted, gives his temper such a 
fierceness and imperiousness, that he flies out on every 
trifling occasion." The old people of the neighborhood 
still remember to have heard from their parents how 
Bob Clive climbed to the top of the lofty steeple of 
Market-Drayton, and with what terror the inhabitants 
saw him seated on a stone spout near the summit. 
They also relate how he formed all the idle lads of the 
town into a kind of predatory army, and compelled the 
shop-keepers to submit to a tribute of apples and half- 
pence, in consideration of which he guaranteed the 



LORD CLIVE 27 

security of their windows. He was sent from school 
to school/ making very little progress in his learning, 
and gaining for himself everywhere the character of an 
exceedingly naughty boy. One of his masters, it is 
said, was sagacious enough to prophesy that the idle 
lad would make a great figure in the world. But the 
general opinion seems to have been that poor Robert 
was a dunce, if not a reprobate. His family expected 
nothing good from such slender parts and such a head- 
strong temper. It is not strange, therefore, that they 
gladly accepted for him, when he was in his eighteenth 
year, a writership ^ in the service of the East India Com- 
pany, and shipped him off to make a fortune or to die 
of a fever at Madras. 

Far different were the prospects of Clive from those 
of the youths whom the East India College ^ now an- 
nually sends to the Presidencies of our Asiatic empire. 
The Company was then purely a trading corporation. 
Its territory consisted of a few square miles, for which 
rent was paid to the native governments. Its troops 
were scarcely numerous enough to man the batteries 
of three or four ill-constructed forts, which had been 
erected for the protection of the warehouses. The na- 
tives, who composed a considerable part of these little 
garrisons, had not yet been trained in the discipline of 
Europe, and were armed, some with swords and shields, 
some with bows and arrows. The business of the ser- 
vant of the Company was not, as now, to conduct the 
judicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a great 
country, but to take stock, to make advances to wea- 



28 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

vers, to ship cargoes, and, above all, to keep an eye on 
private traders who dared to infringe the monopoly. 
The younger clerks were so miserably paid that they 
could scarcely subsist without incurring debt; the elder 
enriched themselves by trading on their own account; 
and those who lived to rise to the top of the service often 
accumulated considerable fortunes. 

Madras, to which Clive had been appointed, was, at 
this time, perhaps, the first in importance of the Com- 
pany's settlements. In the preceding century Fort St. 
George had risen on a barren spot beaten by a raging 
surf; and in the neighborhood a town, inhabited by 
many thousands of natives, had sprung up, as towns 
spring up in the East, with the rapidity of the prophet's 
gourd. ^ There were already in the suburbs many 
white villas, each surrounded by its garden, whither the 
wealthy agents of the Company retired, after the labors 
of the desk and the warehouse, to enjoy the cool breeze 
which springs up at sunset from the Bay of Bengal. 
The habits of these mercantile grandees appear to 
have been more profuse, luxurious, and ostentatious, 
than those of the high judicial and political function- 
aries who have succeeded them. But comfort was 
far less understood. Many devices which now mitigate 
the heat of the climate, preserve health, and prolong 
life, were unknown. There was far less intercourse with 
Europe than at present. The voyage by the Cape, 
which in our time has often been performed within 
three months, was then very seldom accomplished in 
six, and sometimes protracted to more than a year. 



LORD CLIVE 29 

Consequently, the Anglo-Indian was then much more 
estranged from his country, much more addicted to 
Oriental usages, and much less fitted to mix in society 
after his return to Europe, than the Anglo-Indian of 
the present day. 

Within the fort and its precincts, the English exer- 
cised, by permission of the native government, an ex- 
tensive authority, such as every great Indian land- 
owner exercised within his own domain. But they had 
never dreamed of claiming independent power. The 
surrounding country was ruled by the Nabob of the 
Carnatic, a deputy of the Viceroy of the Deccan,^ com- 
monly called the Nizam, who was himself only a deputy 
of the mighty prince designated by our ancestors as the 
Great Mogul. Those names, once so august and for- 
midable, still remain. There is still a Nabob ^ of the 
Carnatic, who lives on a pension allowed to him by the 
English out of the revenues of the province which his 
ancestors ruled. There is still a Nizam, whose capital 
is overawed by a British cantonment, and to whom a 
British resident gives, under the name of advice, com- 
mands which are not to be disputed. There is still a 
Mogul, who is permitted to play at holding courts, and 
receiving petitions, but who has less power to help or 
hurt than the youngest civil servant of the Company. 

Clive's voyage was unusually tedious even for that 
age. The ship remained some monthsat the Brazils, 
where the young adventurer picked up some knowledge 
of Portuguese, and spent all his pocket-money. He 
did not arrive in India till more than a year after 



30 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

he had left England. His situation at Madras was 
most painful. His funds were exhausted. His pay was 
small. He had contracted debts. He was wretchedly 
lodged, no small calamity in a climate which can be 
made tolerable to an European only by spacious and 
well-placed apartments. He had been furnished with 
letters of recommendation to a gentleman who might 
have assisted him; but when he landed at Fort St. 
George he found that this gentleman had sailed for 
England. The lad's shy and haughty disposition with- 
held him from introducing himself to strangers; He 
was several months in India before he became ac- 
quainted with a single family. The climate affected 
his health and spirits. His duties were of a kind ill 
suited to his ardent and daring character. He pined 
for his home, and in his letters to his relations ex- 
pressed his feelings in language softer and more pensive 
than we should have expected either from the way- 
wardness of his boyhood, or from the inflexible stern- 
ness of his later years. "I have not enjoyed," says 
he, "one happy day since I left my native country;" 
and again, " I must confess, at intervals, when I think 
of my dear native England, it affects me in a very par- 
ticular manner. ... If I should be so far blest as to 
revisit again my own country, but more especially 
Manchester, the centre of all my wishes, all that I 
could hope or desire for would be presented before me 
in one view." 

One solace he found of the most respectable kind. 
The Governor possessed a good library, and permitted 



LORD CLIVE 31 

Clive to have access to it. The young man devoted 
much of his leisure to reading, and acquired at this 
time almost all the knowledge of books that he ever 
possessed. As a boy he had been too idle, as a man he 
soon became too busy, for literary pursuits. 

But neither climate nor poverty, neither studies nor 
the sorrows of a home-sick exile, could tame the des- 
perate audacity of his spirit. He behaved to his official 
superiors as he had behaved to his schoolmasters, and 
was several times in danger of losing his situation. 
Twice, while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he at- 
tempted to destroy himself; and twice the pistol which 
he snapped at his own head failed to go off. This cir- 
cumstance, it is said, affected him as a similar escape 
affected Wallenstein.^ After satisfying himself that the 
pistol was really well loaded, he burst forth into an ex- 
clamation that surely he was reserved for something 
great. 

About this time an event which at first seemed likely 
to destroy all his hopes in life suddenly opened before 
him a new path to eminence. Europe had been, dur- 
ing some years, distracted by the war of the Austrian 
Succession.^ George the Second was the steady ally of 
Maria Theresa. The house of Bourbon took the op- 
posite side. Though England was even then the first of 
maritime powers, she was not, as she has since become, 
more than a match on the sea for all the nations of 
the world together; and she found it difficult to main- 
tain a contest against the united navies of France and 
Spain. In the eastern seas France obtained the ascend- 



32 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

ency. Labourdonnais/ governor of Mauritius; a man of 
eminent talents and virtues, conducted an expedition 
to the continent of India in spite of the opposition 
of the British fleet, landed, assembled an army, ap- 
peared before Madras, and compelled the town and 
fort to capitulate. The keys were delivered up; the 
French colors were displayed on Fort St. George; and 
the contents of the Company's warehouses were seized 
as prize of war by the conquerors. It was stipulated 
by the capitulation that the English inhabitants should 
be prisoners of war on parole, and that the town should 
remain in the hands of the French till it should be ran- 
somed. Labourdonnais pledged his honor that only a 
moderate ransom should be required. 

But the success of Labourdonnais had awakened 
the jealousy of his countryman, Dupleix,^ governor of 
Pondicherry. Dupleix, moreover, had already begun 
to revolve gigantic schemes, with which the restoration 
of Madras to the English was by no means compatible. 
He declared that Labourdonnais had gone beyond his 
powers; that conquests made by the French arms on 
the continent of India were at the disposal of the gov- 
ernor of Pondicherry alone, and that Madras should be 
razed to the ground. Labourdonnais was compelled 
to yield. The anger which the breach of the capitula- 
tion excited among the English, was increased by the 
ungenerous manner in which Dupleix treated the prin- 
cipal servants of the Company. The Governor and sev- 
eral of the first gentlemen of Fort St. George were 
carried under a guard to Pondicherry, and conducted 



LORD CLIVE 33 

through the town in a triumphal procession, under the 
eyes of fifty thousand spectators. It was with reason 
thought that this gross violation of public faith ab- 
solved the inhabitants of Madras from the engagements 
into which they had entered with Labourdonnais. 
Clive fled from the town by night in the disguise of a 
Mussulman, and took refuge at Fort St. David, one of 
the small English settlements subordinate to Madras. 

The circumstances in which he was now placed natu- 
rally led him to adopt a profession better suited to his 
restless and intrepid spirit than the business of examin- 
ing packages and casting accounts. He solicited and 
obtained an ensign's commission in the service of the 
Company, and at twenty-one entered on his military 
career. His personal courage, of which he had, while 
still a writer, given signal proof by a desperate duel 
with a military bully, who was the terror of Fort St. 
David, speedily made him conspicuous even among 
hundreds of brave men. He soon began to show in his 
new calling other qualities which had not before been 
discerned in him, — judgment, sagacity, deference to 
legitimate authority. He distinguished himself highly 
in several operations against the French, and was par- 
ticularly noticed by Major Lawrence,^ who was then 
considered as the ablest British officer in India. 

Clive had been only a few months in the army when 
intelligence arrived that peace ^ had been concluded 
between Great Britain and France. Dupleix was in 
consequence compelled to restore Madras to the Eng- 
lish Company; and the young ensign was at liberty to 



34 MAC A ULA Y'S ESS A Y 

resume his former business. He did indeed return for a 
short time to his desk. He again quitted it in order to 
assist Major Lawrence in some petty hostiHties with 
the natives, and then again returned to it. While he 
was thus wavering between a military and a commercial 
life, events took place which decided his choice. The 
politics of India assumed a new aspect. There was 
peace between the English and French Crowns; but 
there arose between the English and French Com- 
panies trading to the East a war most eventful and im- 
portant, a war in which the prize was nothing less than 
the magnificent inheritance of the house of Tamerlane. 

The empire which Baber and his Moguls reared in the 
sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive 
and splendid in the world. In no European kingdom 
was so large a population subject to a single prince, or 
so large a revenue poured into the Treasury. The 
beauty and magnificence of the buildings ^ erected by 
the sovereigns of Hindostan amazed even travellers 
who had seen St. Peter's. The innumerable retinues 
and gorgeous decorations which surrounded the throne 
of Delhi dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to 
the pomp of Versailles. Some of the great viceroys 
who held their posts by virtue of commissions from the 
Mogul ruled as many subjects as the King of France or 
the Emperor of Germany. Even the deputies of these 
deputies might well rank, as to extent of territory and 
amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of Tuscany 
or the Elector of Saxony. 

There can be little doubt that this great empire. 



LORD CLIVE 35 

powerful and prosperous as it appears on a superficial 
view, was yet, even in its best days, far worse governed 
than the worst governed parts of Europe now are. 
The administration was tainted with all the vices of 
Oriental despotism, and with all the vices inseparable 
from the domination of race over race. The conflicting 
pretensions of the princes of the royal house produced 
a long series of crimes and public disasters. Ambitious 
lieutenants of the sovereign sometimes aspired to inde- 
pendence. Fierce tribes of Hindoos, impatient of a 
foreign yoke, frequently withheld tribute, repelled the 
armies of the government from the mountain fast- 
nesses, and poured down in arms on the cultivated 
plains. In spite, however, of much constant malad- 
ministration, in spite of occasional convulsions which 
shook the whole frame of society, this great monarchy, 
on the whole, retained, during some generations, an 
outward appearance of unity, majesty, and energy. 
But, throughout the long reign of Aurungzebe,^ the 
state, notwithstanding all that the vigor and policy of 
the prince could effect, was hastening to dissolution. 
After his death, which took place in the year 1707, the 
ruin was fearfully rapid. Violent shocks from without 
co-operated with an incurable decay which was fast 
proceeding within; and in a few years the empire had 
undergone utter decomposition. 

The history of the successors of Theodosius ^ bears 
no small analogy to that of the successors of Aurung- 
zebe. But perhaps the fall of the Carlovingians ^ fur- 
nishes the nearest parallel to the 'fall of the Moguls. 



36 MAC A ULA Y'S ESS A Y 

Charlemagne was scarcely interred when the imbecility 
and the disputes of his descendants began to bring 
contempt on themselves and destruction on their sub- 
jects. The wide dominion of the Franks was severed 
into a thousand pieces. Nothing more than a nominal 
dignity was left to the abject heirs of an illustrious 
name, Charles the Bald, and Charles the Fat, and 
Charles the Simple. Fierce invaders, differing from 
each other in race, language, and religion, flocked, as if 
by concert, from the farthest corners of the earth, to 
plunder provinces which the government could no 
longer defend. The pirates of the Northern Sea ^ ex- 
tended their ravages from the Elbe to the Pyrenees, 
and at length fixed their seat in the rich valley of the 
Seine. The Hungarian,^ in whom the trembling monks 
fancied that they recognized the Gog or Magog of 
prophecy, carried back the plunder of the cities of 
Lombardy to the depths of the Pannonian forests. The 
Saracen ruled in Sicily, desolated the fertile plains of 
Campania,^ and spread terror even to the walls of 
Rome. In the midst of these sufferings, a great internal 
change passed upon the empire. The corruption of 
death began to ferment into new forms of life. While 
the great body, as a whole, was torpid and passive, 
every separate member began to feel with a sense, and 
to move with an energy all its own. Just here, in 
the most barren and dreary tract of European history, 
all feudal privileges, all modern nobility, take their 
source. It is to this point that we trace the power of 
those princes who, nominally vassals, but really inde- 



LORD CLIVE 37 

pendent; long governed, with the titles of dukes, mar- 
quesses, and counts, almost every part of the domin- 
ions which had obeyed Charlemagne. 

Such or nearly such was the change which passed on 
the Mogul empire during the forty years which followed 
the death of Aurungzebe. A succession of nominal 
sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, saun- 
tered away life in secluded palaces, chewing bang,^ 
fondling concubines, and listening to buffoons. A suc- 
cession of ferocious invaders descended through the 
western passes, to prey on the defenceless wealth of 
Hindostan. A Persian conqueror^ crossed the Indus, 
marched through the gates of Delhi, and bore away in 
triumph those treasures of which the magnificence had 
astounded Roe and Bernier, the Peacock Throne, on 
which the richest jewels of Golconda had been disposed 
by the most skilful hands of Europe, and the inestima- 
ble Mountain of Light, which, after many strange 
vicissitudes, lately shone in the bracelet of Runjeet 
Sing, and is now destined to adorn the hideous idol of 
Orissa. The Afghan soon followed to complete the 
work of devastation which the Persian had begun. The 
warlike tribes of Rajpootana threw off the Mussulman 
yoke. A band of mercenary soldiers occupied Rohil- 
cund. The Seiks ruled on the Indus. The Jauts spread 
dismay along the Jumna. The highlands which border 
on the western sea-coast of India poured forth a yet 
more formidable race, a race which was long the terror 
of every native power, and which, after many desper- 
ate and doubtful struggles, yielded only to the fortune 



38 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

and genius of England. It was under the reign of 
Aurungzebe that this wild clan of plunderers first de- 
scended from their mountains; and soon after his 
death, every corner of his wide empire learned to 
tremble at the mighty name of the Mahrattas.^ Many 
fertile viceroyalties were entirely subdued by them. 
Their dominions stretched across the peninsula from 
sea to sea. Mahratta captains reigned at Poonah, at 
Gualior, in Guzerat, in Berar, and in Tanjore. Nor did 
they, though they had become great sovereigns, there- 
fore cease to be freebooters. They still retained the 
predatory habits of their forefathers. Every region 
which was not subject to their rule was wasted by their 
incursions. Wherever their kettledrums were heard, 
the peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid 
his small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife and 
children to the mountains or the jungles, to the milder 
neighborhood of the hyena and the tiger. Many prov- 
inces redeemed their harvests ^ by the payment of an 
annual ransom. Even the wretched phantom who 
still bore the imperial title stooped to pay this igno- 
minious blackmail. The camp-fires of one rapacious 
leader were seen from the walls of the palace of Delhi. 
Another, at the head of his innumerable cavalry, de- 
scended year after year on the rice-fields of Bengal. 
Even the European factors trembled for their maga- 
zines. Less than a hundred years ago, it was thought 
necessary to fortify Calcutta against the horsemen of 
Berar, and the name of the Mahratta ditch ^ still pre- 
serves the memory of the danger. 



LORD CLIVE 39 

Wherever the viceroys of the Mogul retained author- 
ity they became sovereigns. They might still acknowl- 
edge in words the superiority of the house of Tamerlane ; 
as a Count of Flanders or a Duke of. Burgundy might 
have acknowledged the superiority of the most helpless 
driveller among the later Carlo vingians. They might 
occasionally send to their titular sovereign a complimen- 
tary present, or solicit from him a title of honor. In 
truth, however, they were no longer lieutenants remov- 
able at pleasure, but independent hereditary princes. 
In this way originated those great Mussulman houses 
which formerly ruled Bengal and the Carnatic, and those 
which still, though in a state of vassalage, exercise some 
of the powers of royalty at Lucknow and Hyderabad. 

In what was this confusion to end? Was the strife 
to continue during centuries? Was it to terminate in 
the rise of another great monarchy? Was the Mussul- 
man or the Mahratta to be the Lord of India? Was an- 
other Baber to descend from the mountains, and to lead 
the hardy tribes of Cabul and Chorasan against a wealth- 
ier and less warlike race? None of these events seemed 
improbable. But scarcely any man, however sagacious, 
would have thought it possible that a trading company, 
separated from India by fifteen thousand miles of sea, 
and possessing in India only a few acres for purposes of 
commerce, would, in less than a hundred years, spread 
its empire from Cape Comorin to the eternal snow of the 
Himalayas; would compel Mahratta and Mohammedan 
to forget their mutual feuds in common subjection; 
would tame down even those wild races which had re- 



40 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

sisted the most powerful of the Moguls; and having 
united under its laws a hundred millions of subjects, 
would carry its victorious arms far to the east of the 
Burrampodter/ and far to the west of the Hydaspes, 
dictate terms of peace at the gates of Ava,^ and seat its 
vassal on the throne of Candahar. 

The man who first saw that it was possible to found 
an European empire on the ruins of the Mogul mon- 
archy was Dupleix. His restless, capacious, and inven- 
tive mind had formed this scheme, at a time when the 
ablest servants of the English Company were busied 
only about invoices and bills of lading. Nor had he 
only proposed to himself the end. He had also a just 
and distinct view of the means by which it was to be at- 
tained. He clearly saw that the greatest force which the 
princes of India could bring into the field would be no 
match for a small body of men trained in the discipline, 
and guided by the tactics, of the West. He saw also that 
the natives of India might, under European command- 
ers, be formed into armies, such as Saxe or Frederic ^ 
would be proud to command. He was perfectly aware 
that the most easy and convenient way in which an 
European adventurer could exercise sovereignty in In- 
dia, was to govern the motions, and to speak through 
the mouth of some glittering puppet dignified by the 
title of Nabob or Nizam. The arts both of war and 
policy which a few years later were employed with such 
signal success by the English were first understood and 
practised by this ingenious and aspiring Frenchman. 

The situation of India was such that scarcely any ag- 



LORD CLIVE 41 

gression could be without a pretext either in the old 
laws or in recent practice. All rights were in a state of 
utter uncertainty; and the Europeans who took part in 
the disputes of the natives confounded the confusion, by 
applying to Asiatic politics the public law of the West, 
and analogies drawn from the feudal system. If it was 
convenient to treat a Nabob as an independent prince, 
there was an excellent plea for doing so. He was inde- 
pendent in fact. If it was convenient to treat him as a 
mere deputy of the Court of Delhi, there was no dif- 
ficulty ; for he was so in theory. If it was convenient 
to consider his office as an hereditary dignity, or as a 
dignity held during life only, or as a dignity held only 
during the good pleasure of the Mogul, arguments and 
precedents might be found for every one of those views. 
The party who had the heir of Baber in their hands rep- 
resented him as the undoubted, the legitimate, the abso- 
lute sovereign, whom all subordinate authorities were 
bound to obey. The party against whom his name was 
used did not want plausible pretexts for maintaining 
that the empire was in fact dissolved ; and that, though 
it might be decent to treat the Mogul with respect, as a 
venerable relic of an order of things which had passed 
away, it was absurd to regard him as the real master of 
Hindostan. 

In the year 1748, died one of the most powerful of the 
new masters of India, the great Nizam al Mulk,^ Viceroy 
of the Deccan. His authority descended to his son, Na- 
zir Jung. Of the provinces subj ect to this high function- 
ary, the Carnatic was the wealthiest and the most ex- 



42 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

tensive. It was governed by an ancient Nabob, whose 
name the English corrupted into Anaverdy Khan. 

But there were pretenders to the government both 
of the viceroyalty and of the subordinate province. 
Mirzapha Jung, a grandson of Nizam al Mulk, appeared 
as the competitor of Nazir Jung. Chunda Sahib, son- 
in-law of a former Nabob of the Carnatic, disputed the 
title of Anaverdy Khan.^ In the unsettled state of 
Indian law, it was easy for both Mirzapha Jung and 
Chunda Sahib to make out something like a claim of 
right. In a society altogether disorganized, they had 
no difficulty in finding greedy adventurers to follow 
their standards. They united their interests, invaded 
the Carnatic, and applied for assistance to the French, 
whose fame had been raised by their success against the 
English in the recent war on the coast of Coromandel. 

Nothing could have happened more pleasing to the 
subtle and ambitious Dupleix. To make a Nabob of 
the Carnatic, to make a Viceroy of the Deccan, to rule 
under their names the whole of southern India; this 
was indeed an attractive prospect. He allied himself 
with the pretenders, and sent four hundred French 
soldiers, and two thousand sepoys,^ disciplined after 
the European fashion, to the assistance of his confed- 
erates. A battle was fought. The French distin- 
guished themselves greatly. Anaverdy Khan was de- 
feated and slain. His son, Mohammed Ali, who was 
afterwards well known in England as the Nabob of 
Arcot, and who owes to the eloquence of Burke ^ a 
most unenviable immortality, fled with a scanty rem- 



LORD CLIVE 43 

nant of his army to Trichinopoly ; and the conquerors 
became at once masters of almost every part of the 
Carnatic. 

This was but the beginning of the greatness of Du- 
pleix. After some months of fighting, negotiations, 
and intrigue, his ability and good fortune seemed to 
have prevailed everywhere. Nazir Jung perished by 
the hands of his own followers; Mirzapha Jung was 
master of the Deccan; and the triumph of French arms 
and French policy was complete. At Pondicherry all 
was exultation and festivity. Salutes were fired from 
the batteries, and Te Deum sung in the churches. The 
new Nizam came thither to visit his allies; and the 
ceremony of his installation was performed there with 
great pomp. Dupleix, dressed in the garb worn by 
Mohammedans of the highest rank, entered the town 
in the same palanquin with the Nizam, and, in the 
pageant which followed, took precedence of all the 
court. He was declared Governor of India from the 
river Kristna to Cape Comorin, a country about as 
large as France, with authority superior even to that of 
Chunda Sahib. He was intrusted with the command of 
seven thousand cavalry. It was announced that no 
mint would be suffered to exist in the Carnatic except 
that at Pondicherry. A large portion of the treasures 
which former Viceroys of the Deccan had accumulated 
found its way into the coffers of the French governor. 
It was rumored that he had received two hundred 
thousand pounds sterling in money, besides many valu- 
able jewels. In fact, there could scarcely be any limit 



44 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

to his gains. He now ruled thirty millions of people 
with almost absolute power. No honor or emolument 
could be obtained from the government but by his in- 
tervention. No petition, unless signed by him, was 
perused by the Nizam. 

Mirzapha Jung ^ survived his elevation only a few 
months. But another prince of the same house was 
raised to the throne by French influence, and rati- 
fied all the promises of his predecessor. Dupleix was 
now the greatest potentate in India. His countrymen 
boasted that his name was mentioned with awe even 
in the chambers of the palace of Delhi. The native 
population looked with amazement on the progress 
which, in the short space of four years, an European 
adventurer had made towards dominion in Asia. Nor 
was the vainglorious Frenchman content with the re- 
ality of power. He loved to display his greatness with 
arrogant ostentation before the eyes of his subjects and 
of his rivals. Near the spot where his policy had ob- 
tained its chief triumph, by the fall of Nazir Jung and 
the elevation of Mirzapha, he determined to erect a 
column, on the four sides of which four pompous in- 
scriptions, in four languages, should proclaim his glory 
to all the nations of the East. Medals stamped with 
emblems of his successes were buried beneath the 
foundations of this stately pillar, and round it arose a 
town bearing the haughty name of Dupleix Fatihabad, 
which is, being interpreted, the City of the Victory of 
Dupleix. 

The English had made some feeble and irresolute 



LORD CLIVE 45 

attempts to stop the rapid and brilliant career of the 
rival Company, and continued to recognize Mohammed 
Ali as Nabob of the Carnatic. But the dominions of 
Mohammed Ali consisted of Trichinopoly alone; and 
Trichinopoly was now invested by Chunda Sahib and 
his French auxiliaries. To raise the siege seemed im- 
possible. The small force which was then at Madras 
had no commander. Major Lawrence had returned to 
England, and not a single officer of established char- 
acter remained in the settlement. The natives had 
learned to look with contempt on the mighty nation 
which was soon to conquer and to rule them. They 
had seen the French colors flying on Fort St. George; 
they had seen the chiefs of the EngHsh factory led in 
triumph through the streets of Pondicherry; they had 
seen the arms and counsels of Dupleix everywhere 
successful, while the opposition which the authorities 
of Madras had made to his progress had served only to 
expose their own weakness and to heighten his glory. 
At this moment the valor and genius of an obscure 
English youth suddenly turned the tide of fortune. 

Clive was now twenty-five years old. After hesitat- 
ing for some time between a military and a commercial 
life, he had at length been placed in a post which par- 
took of both characters, — that of commissary to the 
troops, with the rank of captain. The present emer- 
gency called forth all his powers. He represented to 
his superiors that unless some vigorous effort were 
made, Trichinopoly would fall, the house of Anaverdy 
Khan would perish, and the French would become the 



46 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

real masters of the whole peninsula of India. It was 
absolutely necessary to strike some daring blow. If an 
attack were made on Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic 
and the favorite residence of the Nabobs, it was not 
impossible that the siege of Trichinopoly would be 
raised. The heads of the English settlement, now 
thoroughly alarmed by the success of Dupleix, and 
apprehensive that, in the event of a new war between 
France and Great Britain, Madras would be instantly 
taken and destroyed, approved of Olive's plan, and 
intrusted the execution of it to himself. The young 
captain was put at the head of two hundred English 
soldiers, and three hundred sepoys, armed and disci- 
plined after the European fashion. Of the eight offi- 
cers who commanded this little force under him only 
two had ever been in action, and four of the eight 
were factors of the Company, whom Olive's example 
had induced to offer their services. The weather was 
stormy, but Olive pushed on, through thunder, light- 
ning, and rain, to the gates of Arcot. The garrison, in a 
panic, evacuated the fort, and the English entered it 
without a blow. 

But Olive well knew that he should not be suffered to 
retain undisturbed possession of his conquest. He in- 
stantly began to collect provisions, to throw up works, 
and to make preparations for sustaining a siege. The 
garrison, which had fled at his approach, had now re- 
covered from its dismay; and, having been swollen by 
large reinforcements from the neighborhood to a force 
of three thousand men, encamped close to the town. 



LORD CLIVE 47 

At dead of night, Clive marched out of the fort, at- 
tacked the camp by surprise, slew great numbers, dis- 
persed the rest, and returned to his quarters without 
having lost a single man. 

The intelligence of these events was soon carried to 
Chunda Sahib, who, with his French allies, was besieg- 
ing Trichinopoly. He immediately detached four thou- 
sand men from his camp, and sent them to Arcot. 
They were speedily joined by the remains of the force 
which Clive had lately scattered. They were further 
strengthened by two thousand men from Vellore, and 
by a still more important reinforcement of a hundred 
and fifty French soldiers whom Dupleix despatched 
from Pondicherry. The whole of this army, amount- 
ing to about ten thousand men, was under the com- 
mand of Rajah Sahib, son of Chunda Sahib. 

Rajah Sahib proceeded to invest the fort of Arcot, 
which seemed quite incapable of sustaining a siege. 
The walls were ruinous, the ditches dry, the ramparts 
too narrow to admit the guns, the battlements too low 
to protect the soldiers. The little garrison had been 
greatly reduced by casualties. It now consisted of a 
hundred and twenty Europeans and two hundred se- 
poys. Only four officers were left; the stock of pro- 
visions was scanty; and the commander, who had to 
conduct the defence under circumstances so discour- 
aging, was a young man of five and twenty, who had 
been bred a book-keeper. 

During fifty days the siege went on. During fifty 
days the young captain maintained the defence with 



48 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

a firmness, vigilance, and ability, which would have 
done honor to the oldest marshal in Europe. The 
breach, however, increased day by day. The garrison 
began to feel the pressure of hunger. Under such cir- 
cumstances, any troops so scantily provided with 
officers might have been expected to show signs of in- 
subordination; and the danger was peculiarly great 
in a force composed of men differing widely from each 
other in extraction, color, language, manners, and reli- 
gion. But the devotion of the little band to its chief 
surpassed anything that is related of the Tenth Legion 
of Caesar,! or of the Old Guard of Napoleon.^ The sepoys 
came to Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but 
to propose that all the grain should be given to the 
Europeans, who required more nourishment than the 
natives of Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was 
strained away from the rice, would suffice for them- 
selves. History contains no more touching instance 
of military fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding 
mind. 

An attempt made by the government of Madras to 
relieve the place had failed. But there was hope from 
another quarter. A body of six thousand Mahrattas, 
half soldiers, half robbers, under the command of a 
chief named Morari Row, had been hired to assist 
Mohammed Ali; but thinking the French power irre- 
sistible, and the triumph of Chunda Sahib certain, they 
had hitherto remained inactive on the frontiers of the 
Carnatic. The fame of the defence of Arcot roused 
them from their torpor. Morari Row declared that he 



LORD CLIVE 49 

had never before believed that EngUshmen could fight, 
but that he would willingly help them since he saw 
that they had spirit to help themselves. Rajah Sahib 
learned that the Mahrattas were in motion. It was 
necessary for him to be expeditious. He first tried 
negotiation. He offered large bribes to Clive, which 
were rejected with scorn. He vowed that, if his pro- 
posals were not accepted, he would instantly storm the 
fort, and put every man in it to the sword. Clive told 
him in reply, with characteristic haughtiness, that his 
father was an usurper, that his army was a rabble, and 
that he would do well to think twice before he sent such 
poltroons into a breach defended by English soldiers. 

Rajah Sahib determined to storm the fort. The day 
was well suited to a bold military enterprise. It was 
the great Mohammedan festival which is sacred to the 
memory of Hosein, the son of Ali.^ The history of Islam 
contains nothing more touching than the event which 
gave rise to that solemnity. The mournful legend re- 
lates how the chief of the Fatimites, when all his brave 
followers had perished round him, drank his latest 
draught of water, and uttered his latest prayer, how the 
assassins carried his head in triumph, how the tyrant 
smote the lifeless lips with his staff, and how a few old 
men recollected with tears that they had seen those 
lips pressed to the lips of the prophet of God.^ After 
the lapse of near twelve centuries, the recurrence of 
this solemn season excites the fiercest and saddest 
emotions in the bosoms of the devout Moslem of India. 
They work themselves up to such agonies of rage and 



50 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

lamentation that some, it is said, have given up the 
ghost from the mere effect of mental excitement. They 
believe that whoever, during this festival, falls in arms 
against the infidels, atones by his death for all the sins 
of his life, and passes at once to the garden of the 
Houris.^ It was at this time that Rajah Sahib deter- 
mined to assault Arcot. Stimulating drugs were em- 
ployed to aid the effect of religious zeal, and the 
besiegers, drunk with enthusiasm, drunk with bang, 
rushed furiously to the attack. 

Clive had received secret intelligence of the design, 
had made his arrangements, and, exhausted by fatigue, 
had thrown himself on his bed. He was awakened by 
the alarm, and was instantly at his post. The enemy 
advanced, driving before them elephants whose fore- 
heads were armed with iron plates. It was expected 
that the gates would yield to the shock of these living 
battering-rams. But the huge beasts no sooner felt 
the English musket balls than they turned round, and 
rushed furiously away, trampling on the multitude 
which had urged them forward. A raft was launched 
on the water which filled one part of the ditch. Clive, 
perceiving that his gunners at that post did not under- 
stand their business, took the management of a piece 
of artillery himself, and cleared the raft in a few min- 
utes. Where the moat was dry the assailants mounted 
with great boldness; but they were received with a fire 
so heavy and so well directed, that it soon quelled the 
courage even of fanaticism and of intoxication. The 
rear ranks of the English kept the front ranks sup- 



LORD CLIVE 51 

plied with a constant succession of loaded muskets, 
and every shot told on the living mass below. After 
three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the 
ditch. 

The struggle lasted about an hour. Four hundred 
of the assailants fell. The garrison lost only five or 
six men. The besieged passed an anxious night, look- 
ing for a renewal of the attack. But when day broke, 
the enemy were no more to be seen. They had retired, 
leaving to the English several guns and a large quan- 
tity of ammunition. 

The news was received at Fort St. George with trans- 
ports of joy and pride. Clive was justly regarded as a 
man equal to any command. Two hundred English 
soldiers and seven hundred sepoys were^ent to him, 
and with this force he instantly commenced offensive 
operations. He took the fort of Timery, effected a 
junction with a division of Morari Row's army, and 
hastened, by forced marches, to attack Rajah Sahib, 
who was at the head of about five thousand men, of 
whom three hundred were French. The action was 
sharp ; but Clive gained a complete victory. The mili- 
tary chest of Rajah Sahib fell into the hands of the 
conquerors. Six hundred sepoys, who had served in 
the enemy's army came over to Olive's quarters, and 
were taken into the British service. Conjeveram sur- 
rendered without a blow. The governor of Arnee de- 
serted Chunda Sahib, and recognized the title of Mo- 
hammed Ali. 

Had the entire direction of the war been intrusted 



52 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

to Clive, it would probably have been brought to a 
speedy close. But the timidity and incapacity which 
appeared in all the movements of the English, except 
where he was personally present, protracted the strug- 
gle. The Mahrattas muttered that his soldiers were 
of a different race from the British whom they found 
elsewhere. The effect of this languor was, that in no 
long time Rajah Sahib, at the head of a considerable 
army, in which were four hundred French troops, ap- 
peared almost under the guns of Fort St. George, and 
laid waste the villas and gardens of the gentlemen of 
the English settlement. But he was again encoun- 
tered and defeated by Clive. More than a hundred 
of the French were killed or taken, a loss more seri- 
ous than that of thousands of natives. The victorious 
army marched from the field of battle to Fort St. David. 
On the road lay the City of the Victory of Dupleix, 
and the stately monument which was designed to com- 
memorate the triumphs of France in the East. Clive 
ordered both the city and the monument to be razed 
to the ground. He was induced, we believe, to take 
this step, not by personal or national malevolence, but 
by a just and profound policy. The town and its 
pompous name, the pillar and its vaunting inscriptions, 
were among the devices by which Dupleix had laid the 
public mind of India under a spell. This spell it was 
Clive's business to break. The natives had been taught 
that France was confessedly the first power in Europe, 
and that the English did not presume to dispute her 
supremacy. No measure could be more effectual for 



LORD CLIVE 53 

the removing of this delusion than the public and sol- 
emn demolition of the French trophies. 

The government of Madras, encouraged by these 
events, determined to send a strong detachment, under 
Clive, to reinforce the garrison of Trichinopoly. But 
just at this conjuncture, Major Lawrence arrived from 
England, and assumed the chief command. From the 
waywardness and impatience of control which had 
characterized Clive, both at school and in the counting- 
house, it might have been expected that he would not, 
after such achievements, act with zeal and good humor 
in a subordinate capacity. But Lawrence had early 
treated him with kindness; and it is bare justice to 
Clive to say that, proud and overbearing as he was, 
kindness was never thrown away upon him. He cheer- 
fully placed himself under the orders of his old friend, 
and exerted himself as strenuously in the second post 
as he could have done in the first. Lawrence well knew 
the value of such assistance. Though himself gifted 
with no intellectual faculty higher than plain good 
sense, he fully appreciated the powers of his brilliant 
coadjutor. Though he had made a methodical study 
of military tactics, and, like all men regularly bred to 
a profession, was disposed to look with disdain on in- 
terlopers, he had yet liberality enough to acknowledge 
that Clive was an exception to common rules. " Some 
people," he wrote, ''are pleased to term Captain Clive 
fortunate and lucky; but, in my opinion, from the 
knowledge I have of the gentleman, he deserved and 
might expect from his conduct everything as it fell 



54 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

out;— a man of an undaunted resolution, of a cool tem- 
per, and of a presence of mind which never left him in 
the greatest danger; born a soldier; for, without a mili- 
tary education of any sort, or much conversing with 
any of the profession, from his judgment and good 
sense, he led on an army like an experienced officer 
and a brave soldier, with a prudence that certainly 
warranted success." 

The French had no commander to oppose to the 
two friends. Dupleix, not inferior in talents for nego- 
tiation and intrigue to any European who has borne 
a part in the revolutions of India, was ill qualified to 
direct in person military operations. He had not been 
bred a soldier, and had no inclination to become one. 
His enemies accused him of personal cowardice; and 
he defended himself in a strain worthy of Captain Bob- 
adil.^ He kept away from shot, he said, because si- 
lence and tranquillity were propitious to his genius, and 
he found it difficult to pursue his meditations amidst 
the noise of fire-arms. He was thus under the neces- 
sity of intrusting to others the execution of his great 
warlike designs; and he bitterly complained that he 
was ill served. He had indeed been assisted by one 
officer of eminent merit, the celebrated Bussy. But 
Bussy ^ had marched northward with the Nizam, and 
was fully employed in looking after his own interests, 
and those of France, at the court of that prince. Among 
the officers who remained with Dupleix, there was not a 
single man of capacity; and many of them were boys, at 
whose ignorance and folly the common soldiers laughed. 



LORD CLIVE 55 

The English triumphed everywhere. The besiegers 
of Trichinopoly were themselves besieged and com- 
pelled to capitulate. Chunda Sahib ^ fell into the hands 
of the Mahrattas, and was put to death, at the insti- 
gation probably of his competitor, Mohammed Ali. 
The spirit of Dupleix, however, was unconquerable, 
and his resources inexhaustible. From his employers 
in Europe he no longer received help or countenance. 
They condemned his policy. They gave him no pecu- 
niary assistance. They sent him for troops only the 
sweepings of the galleys. Yet still he persisted, in- 
trigued, bribed, promised; — lavished his private for- 
tune, strained his credit, procured new diplomas 
from Delhi, raised up new enemies to the government 
of Madras on every side, and found tools even among 
the allies of the English Company. But all was in 
vain. Slowly, but steadily, the power of Britain con- 
tinued to increase, and that of France to decline. 

The health of Clive had never been good during his 
residence in India; and his constitution was now so 
much impaired that he determined to return to Eng- 
land. Before his departure he undertook a service 
of considerable difficulty, and performed it with his 
usual vigor and dexterity. The forts of Covelong and 
Chingleput were occupied by French garrisons. It was 
determined to send a force against them. But the only 
force available for this purpose was of such a descrip- 
tion that no officer but Clive would risk his reputation 
by commanding it. It consisted of five hundred newly 
levied sepoys, and two hundred recruits who had just 



56 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

landed from England, and who were the worst and 
lowest wretches that the Company's crimps could pick 
up in the flash-houses ^ of London. Clive, ill and ex- 
hausted as he was, undertook to make an army of this 
undisciplined rabble, and marched with them to Cove- 
long. A shot from the fort killed one of these extraor- 
dinary soldiers; on which all the rest faced about and 
ran away, and it was with the greatest difficulty that 
Clive rallied them. On another occasion, the noise of a 
gun terrified the sentinels so much that one of them was 
found, some hours later, at the bottom of a well. Clive 
gradually accustomed them to danger, and, by expos- 
ing himself constantly in the most perilous situations, 
shamed them into courage. He at length succeeded in 
forming a respectable force out of his unpromising ma- 
terials. Covelong fell. Clive learned that a strong de- 
tachment was marching to relieve it from Chingieput. 
He took measures to prevent the enemy from learning 
that they were too late, laid an ambuscade for them on 
the road, killed a hundred of them with one fire, took 
three hundred prisoners, pursued the fugitives to the 
gates of Chingieput, laid siege instantly to that fast- 
ness, reputed one of the strongest in India, made a 
breach, and was on the point of storming, when the 
French commandant capitulated, and retired with his 
men. 

Clive returned to Madras victorious, but in a state 
of health which rendered it impossible for him to re- 
main there long. He married at this time a young lady 
of the name of Maskelyne,^ sister of the eminent mathe- 



LORD CLIVE 57 

matician who long held the post of Astronomer Royal. 
She is described as handsome and accomplished; and 
her husband's letters, it is said, contain proofs that he 
was devotedly attached to her. 

Almost immediately after the marriage, Clive em- 
barked with his bride for England. He returned a very 
different person from the poor slighted boy who had 
been sent out ten years before to seek his fortune. He 
was only twenty-seven; yet his country already re- 
spected him as one of her first soldiers. There was then 
general peace in Europe. The Carnatic was the only 
part of the world where the English and French were 
in arms against each other. The vast schemes of Du- 
pleix had excited no small uneasiness in the city of 
London; and the rapid turn of fortune, which was 
chiefly owing to the courage and talents of Clive, had 
been hailed with great delight. The young captain was 
known at the India House by the honorable nick-name 
of General Clive, and was toasted by that appellation 
at the feasts of the Directors. On his arrival in Eng- 
land, he found himself an object of general interest 
and admiration. The East India Company thanked 
him for his services in the warmest terms, and bestowed 
on him a sword set with diamonds. With rare deli- 
cacy he refused to receive this token of gratitude, un- 
less a similar compliment were paid to his friend and 
commander, Lawrence. 

It may easily be supposed that Clive was most cor- 
dially welcomed home by his family, who were de- 
lighted by his success, though they seem to have been 



58 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

hardly able to comprehend how their naughty idle 
Bobby had become so great a man. His father had 
been singularly hard of belief. Not until the news of 
the defence of Arcot arrived in England was the old 
gentleman heard to growl out that, after.all, the booby 
had something in him. His expressions of approbation 
became stronger and stronger as news arrived of one 
brilliant exploit after another; and he was at length 
immoderately fond and proud of his son. 

Olive's relations had very substantial reasons for re- 
joicing at his return. Considerable sums of prize money 
had fallen to his share; and he had brought home a 
moderate fortune, part of which he expended in ex- 
tricating his father from pecuniary difficulties, and in 
redeeming the family estate. The remainder he ap- 
pears to have dissipated in the course of about two 
years. He lived splendidly, dressed gayly even for 
those times, kept a carriage and saddle horses, and, not 
content with these ways of getting rid of his money, re- 
sorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of 
evacuation, a contested election followed by a petition. 

At the time of the general election of 1754, the gov- 
ernment was in a very singular state. There was 
scarcely any formal opposition. The Jacobites had 
been cowed by the issue of the last rebellion. The Tory 
party had fallen into utter contempt. It had been de- 
serted by all the men of talents who had belonged to it, 
and had scarcely given a symptom of life during some 
years. The small faction which had been held to- 
gether by the influence and promises of Prince Fred- 



LORD CLIVE 59 

eric, had been dispersed by his death. Almost every 
public man of distinguished talents in the kingdom, 
whatever his early connections might have been, was 
in office, and called himself a Whig. But this extraor- 
dinary appearance of concord was quite delusive. The 
administration itself was distracted by bitter enmities 
and conflicting pretensions. The chief object of its 
members was to depress and supplant each other. The 
prime minister, Newcastle,^ weak, timid, jealous, and 
perfidious, was at once detested and despised by some 
of the most important members of his government, 
and by none more than by Henry Fox, the Secre- 
tary at War. This able, daring, and ambitious man 
seized every opportunity of crossing the First Lord of 
the Treasury, from whom he well knew that he had 
little to dread and little to hope; for Newcastle was 
through life equally afraid of breaking with men of 
parts and of promoting them. 

Newcastle had set his heart on returning two mem- 
bers for St. Michael, one of those wretched Cornish 
boroughs ^ which were swept away by the Reform Act 
in 1832. He was opposed by Lord Sandwich, whose 
influence had long been paramount there: and Fox ex- 
erted himself strenuously in Sandwich's behalf. Clive, 
who had been introduced to Fox, and very kindly re- 
ceived by him, was brought forward on the Sandwich 
interest, and was returned. But a petition was pre- 
sented against the return, and was backed by the whole 
influence of the Duke of Newcastle. 

The case was heard, according to the usage of that 



60 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

time, before a committee of the whole House. ^ Ques- 
tions respecting elections were then considered merely 
as party questions. Judicial impartiality was not even 
affected. Sir Robert Walpole was in the habit of say- 
ing openly that, in election battles, there ought to be 
no quarter. On the present occasion the excitement 
was great. The matter really at issue was, not whether 
Clive had been properly or improperly returned, but 
whether Newcastle or Fox was to be master of the new 
House of Commons, and consequently first minister. 
The contest was long and obstinate, and success seemed 
to lean sometimes to one side and sometimes to the 
other. Fox put forth all his rare powers of debate, beat 
half the lawyers in the House at their own weapons, 
and carried division after division ^ against the whole 
influence of the Treasury. The committee decided in 
Olive's favor. But when the resolution was reported 
to the House, things took a different course. The rem- 
nant of the Tory Opposition, contemptible as it was, 
had yet sufficient weight to turn the scale between the 
nicely balanced parties of Newcastle and Fox. New- 
castle the Tories could only despise. Fox they hated, 
as the boldest and most subtle politician and the ablest 
debater among the Whigs, as the steady friend of Wal- 
pole, as the devoted adherent of the Duke of Cumber- 
land. After wavering till the last moment, they de- 
termined to vote in a body with the Prime Minister's 
friends. The consequence was that the House, by a 
small majority, rescinded the decision of the committee, 
and Clive was unseated. 



LORD CLIVE 61 

Ejected from Parliament, and straitened in his 
means, he naturally began to look again towards India. 
The Company and the Government were eager to avail 
themselves of his services. A treaty favorable to Eng- 
land had indeed been concluded in the Carnatic. Du- 
pleix had been superseded, and had returned with the 
wreck of his immense fortune to Europe, where cal- 
umny and chicanery soon hunted him to his grave. 
But many signs indicated that a war between France 
and Great Britain was at hand; and it was therefore 
thought desirable to send an able commander to the 
Company's settlements in India. The Directors ap- 
pointed Clive governor of Fort St. David. The King 
gave him the commission of a lieutenant-colonel in the 
British army, and in 1755 he again sailed for Asia. 

The first service on which he was employed after 
his return to the East was the reduction of the strong- 
hold of Gheriah. This fortress, built on a craggy prom- 
ontory, and almost surrounded by the ocean, was the 
den of a pirate named Angria, whose barks had long 
been the terror of the Arabian Gulf. Admiral Watson, 
who commanded the English squadron in the Eastern 
seas, burned Angria's fleet, while Clive attacked the 
fastness by land. The place soon fell, and a booty of a 
hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling was di- 
vided among the conquerors. 

After this exploit, Clive proceeded to his govern- 
ment of Fort St. David. Before he had been there two 
months, he received intelligence which called forth all 
the energy of his bold and active mind. 



62 MACAULAY\S ESSAY 

Of the provinces which had been subject to the 
house of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Bengal. No 
part of India possessed such natural advantages both 
for agriculture and for commerce. The Ganges, rush- 
ing through a hundred channels to the sea, has formed 
a vast plain of rich mould which, even under the tropi- 
cal sky, rivals the verdure of an English April. The 
rice fields yield an increase such as is elsewhere un- 
known. Spices, sugar, vegetable oils, are produced 
with marvellous exuberance. The rivers afford an in- 
exhaustible supply of fish. The desolate islands along 
the sea-coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation, and 
swarming with deer and tigers, supply the cultivated 
districts with abundance of salt. The great stream 
which fertilizes the soil is, at the same time, the chief 
highway of Eastern commerce. On its banks, and on 
those of its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, 
the most splendid capitals, and the most sacred shrines 
of India. The tyranny of man had for ages struggled 
in vain against the overflowing bounty of nature. In 
spite of the Mussulman despot and of the Mahratta 
freebooter, Bengal was known through the East as the 
garden of Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population 
multiplied exceedingly. Distant provinces were nour- 
ished from the overflowing of its granaries; and the 
noble ladies of London and Paris were clothed in the 
delicate produce of its looms. The race by whom this 
rich tract was peopled, enervated by a soft climate and 
accustomed to peaceful employments, bore the same re- 
lation to other Asiatics which the Asiatics generally 



LORD CLIVE 63 

bear to the bold and energetic children of Europe. The 
Castilians have a proverb, that in Valencia the earth is 
water and the men women; and the description is at 
least equally applicable to the vast plain of the Lower 
Ganges. Whatever the Bengalee does, he does lan- 
guidly. His favorite pursuits are sedentary. He 
shrinks from bodily exertion; and, though voluble in 
dispute and singularly pertinacious in the war of 
chicane, he seldom engages in a personal conflict, and 
scarcely ever enlists as a soldier. We doubt whether 
there be a hundred genuine Bengalees in the whole 
army of the East India Company. There never, per- 
haps, existed a people so thoroughly fitted by nature 
and by habit for a foreign yoke. 

The great commercial companies of Europe had 
long possessed factories in Bengal. The French were 
settled, as they still are, at Chandernagore ^ on the 
Hoogley. Higher up the stream the Dutch traders 
held Chinsurah. Nearer to the sea, the English had 
built Fort William. A church and ample warehouses 
rose in the vicinity. A row of spacious houses, belong- 
ing to the chief factors of the East India Company, 
lined the banks of the river; and in the neighborhood 
had sprung up a large and busy native town, where 
some Hindoo merchants of great opulence had fixed 
their abode. But the tract now covered by the palaces 
of Chowringhee ^ contained only a few miserable huts 
thatched with straw. A jungle, abandoned to water- 
fowl and alligators, covered the site of the present 
Citadel, and the Course,^ which is now daily crowded at 



64 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

sunset with the gayest equipages of Calcutta. For the 
ground on which the settlement stood, the English, 
like other great landholders, paid rent to the govern- 
ment; and they were, like other great landholders, per- 
mitted to exercise a certain jurisdiction within their 
domain. 

The great province of Bengal, together with Orissa 
and Bahar, had long been governed by a viceroy, 
whom the English called Aliverdy Khan,^ and who, 
like the other viceroys of the Mogul, had become vir- 
tually independent. He died in 1756, and the sov- 
ereignty descended to his grandson, a youth under 
twenty years of age, who bore the name of Surajah 
Dowlah. Oriental despots are perhaps the worst class 
of human beings ; and this unhappy boy was one of the 
worst specimens of his class. His understanding was 
naturally feeble, and his temper naturally unamiable. 
His education had been such as would have enervated 
even a vigorous intellect, and perverted even a gener- 
ous disposition. He was unreasonable, because no one 
ever dared to reason with him, and selfish, because 
he had never been made to feel himself dependent on 
the good will of others. Early debauchery had un- 
nerved his body and his mind. He indulged immod- 
erately in the use of ardent spirits, which inflamed his 
weak brain almost to madness. His chosen compan- 
ions were flatterers sprung from the dregs of the peo- 
ple, and recommended by nothing but buffoonery and 
servility. It is said that he had arrived at that last 
stage of human depravity, when cruelty becomes pleas- 



LORD CLIVE 65 

ing for its own sake, when the sight of pain as pain, 
where no advantage is to be gained, no offence pun- 
ished, no danger averted, is an agreeable excitement. 
It had early been his amusement to torture beasts and 
birds; and when he grew up, he enjo3^ed with still keener 
relish the misery of his fellow-creatures. 

From a child Surajah Dowlah had hated the English. 
It was his whim to do so; and his whims were never 
opposed. He had also formed a very exaggerated no- 
tion of the wealth which might be obtained by plun- 
dering them; and his feeble and uncultivated mind 
was incapable of perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, 
had they been even greater than he imagined, would 
not compensate him for what he must lose, if the Eu- 
ropean trade, of which Bengal was a chief seat, should 
be driven by his violence to some other quarter. Pre- 
texts for a quarrel were readily found. The English, 
in expectation of a war with France, had begun to for- 
tify their settlement without special permission from 
the Nabob. A rich native, whom he longed to plun- 
der, had taken refuge at Calcutta, and had not been 
delivered up. On such grounds as these Surajah Dow- 
lah marched with a great army against Fort William.^ 

The servants of the Company at Madras had been 
forced by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers. 
Those in Bengal were still mere traders, and were ter- 
rified and bewildered by the approaching danger. The 
governor, who had heard much of Surajah Dowlah's 
cruelty, was frightened out of his wits, jumped into 
a boat, and took refuge in the nearest ship. The mili- 



66 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

tary commandant thought that he could not do bet- 
ter than follow so good an example. The fort was 
taken ^ after a feeble resistance; and great numbers 
of the English fell into the hands of the conquerors. 
The Nabob seated himself with regal pomp in the prin- 
cipal hall of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the 
first in rank amongst the prisoners, to be brought 
before him. His Highness talked about the insolence 
of the English, and grumbled at the smallness of the 
treasure which he had found; but promised to spare 
their lives, and retired to rest. 

Then was committed that great crime, memorable 
for its singular atrocity, memorable for the terrible 
retribution by which it was followed. The English 
captives were left at the mercy of the guards, and the 
guards determined to secure them for the night in the 
prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fear- 
ful name of the Black Hole. Even for a single Euro- 
pean malefactor, the dungeon would, in such a climate, 
have been too close and narrow. The space was only 
twenty feet square. The air-holes were small and 
obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the season 
when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be ren- 
dered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls 
and by the constant waving of fans. The number of 
the prisoners was one hundred and forty-six. When 
they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined the 
soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on 
account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their 
lives, they laughed and jested at the absurdity of the 



LORD CLIVE 67 

notion. They soon discovered their mistake. They ex- 
postulated; they entreated; but in vain. The guards 
threatened to cut down all who hesitated. The cap- 
tives were driven into the cell at the point of the 
sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked 
upon them. 

Nothing in history or fiction, not even the story which 
Ugolino ^ told in the sea of everlasting ice, after he 
had wiped his bloody lips on the scalp of his murderer, 
approaches the horrors which were recounted by the 
few survivors of that night. They cried for mercy. 
They strove to burst the door. Holwell, who, even in 
that extremity, retained some presence of mind, of- 
fered large bribes to the jailers. But the answer was 
that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, 
that the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be an- 
gry if anybody woke him. Then the prisoners went 
mad with despair. They trampled each other down, 
fought for the places at the windows, fought for the pit- 
tance of water with which the cruel mercy of the mur- 
derers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed, blasphemed, 
implored the guards to fire among them. The jailers 
in the meantime held lights to the bars, and shouted 
with laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. 
At length the tumult died away in low gaspings and 
moanings. The day broke. The Nabob had slept off 
his debauch, and permitted the door to be opened. 
But it was some time before the soldiers could make 
a lane for the survivors, by piling up on each side the 
heaps of corpses on which the burning climate had 



68 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

already begun to do its loathsome work. When at 
length a passage was made, twenty-three ghastly fig- 
ures, such as their own mothers would not have known, 
staggered one by one out of the charnel-house. A pit 
was instantly dug. The dead bodies, a hundred and 
twenty-three in number, were flung into it promiscu- 
ously and covered up. 

But these things, which, after the lapse of more 
than eighty years, cannot be told or read without hor- 
ror, awakened neither remorse nor pity in the bosom 
of the savage Nabob. He inflicted no punishment on 
the murderers. He showed no tenderness to the sur- 
vivors. Some of them, indeed, from whom nothing 
was to be got, were suffered to depart; but those from 
whom it was thought that anything could be extorted 
were treated with execrable cruelty. Holwell, unable 
to walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached 
him, threatened him, and sent him up the country in 
irons, together with some other gentlemen who were 
suspected of knowing more than they chose to tell 
about the treasures of the Company. These persons, 
still bowed down by the sufferings of that great agony, 
were lodged in miserable sheds, and fed only with grain 
and water, till at length the intercessions of the female 
relations of the Nabob procured their release. One 
Englishwoman had survived that night. She was placed 
in the harem of the Prince at Moorshedabad. 

Surajah Dowlah, in the meantime, sent letters to 
his nominal sovereign at Delhi, describing the late con- 
quest in the most pompous language. He placed a 



LORD CLIVE 69 

garrison in Fort William, forbade any Englishman to 
dwell in the neighborhood, and directed that, in mem- 
ory of his great actions, Calcutta should thencefor- 
ward be called Alinagore, that is to say, the Port of 

God. 

In August the news of the fall of Calcutta reached 
Madras, and excited the fiercest and bitterest resent- 
ment. The cry of the whole settlement was for ven- 
geance. Within forty-eight hours after the arrival of 
the intelligence, it was determined that an expedition 
should be sent to the Hoogley, and that Clive should 
be at the head of the land forces. The naval armament 
was under the command of Admiral Watson. Nine 
hundred English infantry, fine troops and full of spirit, 
and fifteen hundred sepoys, composed the army which 
sailed to punish a Prince who had more subjects than 
Louis the Fifteenth or the Empress Maria Theresa. 
In October the expedition sailed; ^ but it had to make 
its way against adverse winds, and did not reach Bengal 
till December. 

The Nabob was revelling in fancied security at 
Moorshedabad. He was so profoundly ignorant of the 
state of foreign countries that he often used to say that 
there were not ten thousand men in all Europe; and it 
had never occurred to him as possible, that the English 
would dare to invade his dominions. But, though un- 
disturbed by any fear of their military power, he be- 
gan to miss them greatly. His revenues fell off; and 
his ministers succeeded in making him understand that 
a ruler may sometimes find it more profitable to pro- 



70 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

tect traders in the open enjoyment of their gains than 
to put them to the torture for the purpose of discovering 
hidden chests of gold and jewels. He was already dis- 
posed to permit the Company to resume its mercan- 
tile operations in his country, when he received the 
news that an English armament was in the Hoogley. 
He instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at 
Moorshedabad, and marched towards Calcutta. 

Clive had commenced operations with his usual vigor. 
He took Budgebuclge, routed the garrison of Fort Wil- 
liam, recovered Calcutta, stormed and sacked Hoogley. 
The Nabob, already disposed to make some concessions 
to the English, was confirmed in his pacific disposition 
by these proofs of their power and spirit. He accord- 
ingly made overtures to the chiefs of the invading 
armament, and offered to restore the factory, and to 
give compensation to those whom he had despoiled. 

Clive's profession was war; and he felt that there 
was something discreditable in an accommodation with 
Surajah Dowlah. But his power was limited. A com- 
mittee, chiefly composed of servants of the Company 
who had fled from Calcutta, had the principal direction 
of affairs; and these persons were eager to be restored 
to their posts and compensated for their losses. The 
government of Madras, apprised that war had com- 
menced in Europe, and apprehensive of an attack from 
the French, became impatient for the return of the 
armament. The promises of the Nabob were large, the 
chances of a contest doubtful; and Clive consented to 
treat, though he expressed his regret that things should 



LORD CLIVE 71 

not be concluded in so glorious a manner as he could 
have wished. 

With this negotiation commences a new chapter in 
the life of Clive. Hitherto he had been merely a soldier 
carrying into effect, with eminent ability and valor, 
the plans of others. Henceforth he is to be chiefly re- 
garded as a statesman; and his military movements are 
to be considered as subordinate to his political designs. 
That in his new capacity he displayed great ability, and 
obtained great success, is unquestionable. But it is also 
unquestionable that the transactions in which he now 
began to take a part have left a stain on his moral char- 
acter. 

We can by no means agree with Sir John Malcolm, 
who is obstinately resolved to see nothing but honor 
and integrity in the conduct of his hero. But we can 
as little agree with Mr. Mill, who has gone so far as to 
say that Clive was a man " to whom deception, when it 
suited his purpose, never cost a pang.'' Clive seems to 
us to have been constitutionally the very opposite of a 
knave, bold even to temerity, sincere even to indiscre- 
tion, hearty in friendship, open in enmity. Neither in 
his private life, nor in those parts of his public life in 
which he had to do with his countrymen, do we find 
any signs of a propensity to cunning. On the contrary, 
in all the disputes in which he was engaged as an Eng- 
lishman against Englishmen, from his boxing-matches 
at school to those stormy • altercations at the India 
House and in Parliament, amidst which his later years 
were passed, his very faults were those of a high and 



72 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

magnanimous spirit. The truth seems to have been 
that he considered Oriental poHtics as a game in which 
nothing was unfair. He knew that the standard of 
morality among the natives of India differed widely 
from that established in England. He knew that he 
had to deal with men destitute of what in Europe is 
called honor, with men who would give any promise 
without hesitation, and break any promise without 
shame, with men who would unscrupulously employ 
corruption, perjury, forgery, to compass their ends. 
His letters show that the great difference between 
Asiatic and European morality was constantly in his 
thoughts. He seems to have imagined, most erro- 
neously in our opinion, that he could effect nothing 
against such adversaries, if he was content to be bound 
by ties from which they were free, if he went on telling 
truth, and hearing none, if he fulfilled, to his own hurt, 
all his engagements with confederates who never kept 
an engagement that was not to their advantage. Ac- 
cordingly this man, in the other parts of his life an 
honorable English gentleman and a soldier, was no 
sooner matched against an Indian intriguer, than he be- 
came himself an Indian intriguer, and descended, with- 
out scruple, to falsehood, to hypocritical caresses, to 
the substitution of documents, and to the counterfeit- 
ing of hands. 

The negotiations between the English and the Nabob 
were carried on chiefly by two agents, Mr. Watts, a 
servant of the Company, and a Bengalee of the name 
of Omichund. This Omichund had been one of the 



LORD CLIVE 73 

wealthiest native merchants resident at Calcutta, and 
had sustained great losses in consequence of the Na- 
bob's expedition against that place. In the course of 
his commercial transactions, he had seen much of the 
English, and was peculiarly qualified to serve as a 
medium of communication between them and a native 
court. He possessed great influence with his own race, 
and had in large measure the Hindoo talents, quick 
observation, tact, dexterity, perseverance, and the Hin- 
doo vices, servility, greediness, and treachery. 

The Nabob behaved with all the faithlessness of an 
Indian statesman, and with all the levity of a boy whose 
mind had been enfeebled by power and self-indulgence. 
He promised, retracted, hesitated, evaded. At one time 
he advanced with his army in a threatening man- 
ner towards Calcutta; but when he saw the resolute 
front which the English presented, he fell back in 
alarm, and consented to make peace with them on their 
own terms. The treaty was no sooner concluded than 
he formed new designs against them. He intrigued 
with the French authorities at Chandernagore. He 
invited Bussy to march from the Deccan to the Hoog- 
ley, and to drive the English out of Bengal. All this 
was well known to Clive and Watson. They deter- 
mined accordingly to strike a decisive blow, and to 
attack Chandernagore, before the force there could be 
strengthened by new arrivals, either from the south of 
India, or from Europe. Watson directed the expedi- 
tion by water, Clive by land. The success of the com- 
bined movements was rapid and complete. The fort. 



74 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

the garrison, the artillery, the military stores, all fell 
into the hands of the English. Nearly five hundred 
European troops were among the prisoners. 

The Nabob had feared and hated the English, even 
while he was still able to oppose to them their French 
rivals. The French were now vanquished; and he be- 
gan to regard the English with still greater fear and 
still greater hatred. His weak and unprincipled mind 
oscillated between servility and insolence. One day he 
sent a large sum to Calcutta, as part of the compensa- 
tion due for the wrongs which he had committed. The 
next day he sent a present of jewels to Bussy, exhorting 
that distinguished officer to hasten to protect Bengal 
'^against Clive, the daring in war, on whom," says his 
Highness, '^may all bad fortune attend." He ordered 
his army to march against the English. He counter- 
manded his orders. He tore Olive's letters. He then 
sent answers in the most florid language of compliment. 
He ordered Watts out of his presence, and threatened 
to impale him. He again sent for Watts, and begged 
pardon for the insult. In the meantime, his wretched 
maladministration, his folly, his dissolute manners, and 
his love of the lowest company, had disgusted all classes 
of his subj ects, soldiers, traders, civil functionaries, the 
proud and ostentatious Mohammedans, the timid, sup- 
ple, parsimonious Hindoos. A formidable confederacy 
was formed against him, in which were included Roy- 
dullub, the minister of finance, Meer Jaffier, the prin- 
cipal commander of the troops, and Jugget Seit, the 
richest banker in India. The plot was confided to the 



LORD CLIVE 75 

English agents, and a communication was opened be- 
tween the malcontents at Moorshedabad and the com- 
mittee at Calcutta. 

In the committee there was much hesitation; but 
Olive's voice was given in favor of the conspirators, 
and his vigor and firmness bore down all opposition. 
It was determined that the English should lend their 
powerful assistance to depose Surajah Dowlah, and to 
place Meer Jaffier on the throne of Bengal. In return, 
Meer Jaffier promised ample compensation to the Com- 
pany and its servants, and a liberal donative to the 
army, the navy, and the committee. The odious vices 
of Surajah Dowlah, the wrongs which the English had 
suffered at his hands, the dangers to which our trade 
must have been exposed had he continued to reign, ap- 
pear to us fully to justify the resolution of deposing him. 
But nothing can justify the dissimulation which Clive 
stooped to practice. He wrote to Surajah Dowlah in 
terms so affectionate that they for a time lulled that 
weak prince into perfect security. The same courier 
who carried this " soothing letter," as Clive calls it, to 
the Nabob, carried to Mr. Watts a letter in the follow- 
ing terms: "Tell Meer Jaffier to fear nothing. I will 
join him with five thousand men who never turned 
their backs. Assure him I will march night and day to 
his assistance, and stand by him as long as I have a man 
left.'' 

It was impossible that a plot which had so many 
ramifications should long remain entirely concealed. 
Enough reached the ears of the Nabob to arouse his 



76 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

suspicions. But he was soon quieted by the fictions 
and artifices which the inventive genius of Omichund 
produced with miraculous readiness. All was going 
well; the plot was nearly ripe; when Clive learned that 
Omichund was likely to play false. The artful Bengalee 
had been promised a liberal compensation for all that 
he had lost at Calcutta. But this would not satisfy him. 
His services had been great. He held the thread of the 
whole intrigue. By one word breathed in the ear of 
Surajah Dowlah, he could undo all that he had done. 
The lives of Watts, of Meer Jaffier, of all the conspira- 
tors, were at his mercy; and he determined to take ad- 
vantage of his situation and to make his own terms. 
He demanded three hundred thousand pounds sterling 
as the price of his secrecy and of his assistance. The 
committee, incensed by the treachery, and appalled by 
the danger, knew not what course to take. But Clive 
was more than Omichund's match in Omichund's own 
arts. The man, he said, was a villain. Any artifice 
which would defeat such knavery was justifiable. The 
best course would be to promise what was asked. Omi- 
chund would soon be at their mercy; and then they 
might punish him by withholding from him, not only 
the bribe which he now demanded, but also the compen- 
sation which all the other sufferers of Calcutta were to 
receive. 

His advice was taken. But how was the wary and 
sagacious Hindoo to be deceived? He had demanded 
that an article touching his claims should be inserted 
in the treaty between Meer Jaffier and the English, and 



LORD CLIVE 77 

he would not be satisfied unless he saw it with his own 
eyes. Clive had an expedient ready. Two treaties 
were drawn up, one on white paper, the other on red, 
the former real, the latter fictitious. In the former 
Omichund's name was not mentioned; the latter, which 
was to be shown to him, contained a stipulation in his 
favor. 

But another difficulty arose. Admiral Watson had 
scruples against signing the red treaty. Omichund's 
vigilance and acuteness were such that the absence of 
so important a name would probably awaken suspi- 
cions. But Clive Avas not a man to do anything by 
halves. We almost blush to write it. He forged Ad- 
miral Watson's name. 

All was now ready for action. Mr. Watts fled se- 
cretly from Moorshedabad. Clive put his troops in 
motion, and wrote to the Nabob in a tone very different 
from that of his previous letters. He set forth all the 
wrongs which the British had suffered, offered to sub- 
mit the points in dispute to the arbitration of Meer 
Jaffier, and concluded by announcing that, as the rains 
were about to set in, he and his men would do them- 
selves the honor of waiting on his Highness for an 
answer. 

Surajah Dowlah instantly assembled his whole force, 
and marched to encounter the English. It had been 
agreed that Meer Jaffier should separate himself from 
the Nabob, and carry over his division to Clive. But, 
as the decisive moment approached, the fears of the 
conspirator overpowered his ambition. Clive had ad- 



78 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

vanced to Cossimbuzar; the Nabob lay with a mighty 
power a few miles off at Plassey; and still Meer Jaffier 
delayed to fulfil his engagements, and returned evasive 
answers to the earnest remonstrances of the English 
general. 

Clive was in a painfully anxious situation. He could 
place no confidence in the sincerity or in the courage 
of his confederate: and whatever confidence he might 
place in his own military talents, and in the valor and 
discipline of his troops, it was no light thing to engage 
an army twenty times as numerous as his own. Before 
him lay a river over which it was easy to advance, but 
over which, if things went ill, not one of his little band 
would ever return. On this occasion, for the first and 
for the last time, his dauntless spirit, during a few hours, 
shrank from the fearful responsibility of making a de- 
cision. He called a council of war. The majority pro- 
nounced against fighting; and Clive declared his con- 
currence with the majority. Long afterwards, he said 
that he had never called but one council of war, and 
that, if he had taken the advice of that council, the 
British would never have been masters of Bengal. But 
scarcely had the meeting broke up when he was him- 
self again. He retired alone under the shade of some 
trees, and passed near an hour there in thought. He 
came back determined to put everything to the hazard, 
and gave orders that all should be in readiness for pass- 
ing the river on the morrow. 

The river was passed; and, at the close of a toilsome 
day's march, the army, long after sunset, took up its 



LORD CLIVE 79 

quarters in a grove of mango trees near Plassey, within 
a mile of the enemy. Clive was unable to sleep; he 
heard through the whole night the sound of drums and 
cymbals from the vast camp of the Nabob. It is not 
strange that even his stout heart should now and then 
have sunk, when he reflected against what odds, and 
for what a prize, he was in a few hours to contend. 

Nor was the rest of Surajah Dowlah more peaceful. 
His mind, at once weak and stormy, was distracted 
by wild and horrible apprehensions. Appalled by the 
greatness and nearness of the crisis, distrusting his 
captains, dreading every one who approached him, 
dreading to be left alone, he sat gloomily in his tent, 
haunted, a Greek poet would have said, by the furies ^ 
of those who had cursed him with their last breath in 
the Black Hole. 

The day broke, the day which was to decide the fate 
of India. At sunrise, the army of the Nabob, ^ pour- 
ing through many openings from the camp, began to 
move towards the grove where the English lay. Forty 
thousand infantry, armed with firelocks, pikes, swords, 
bows, and arrows, covered the plain. They were ac- 
companied by fifty pieces of ordnance of the largest 
size, each tugged by a long team of white oxen, and 
each pushed on from behind by an elephant. Some 
smaller guns, under the direction of a few French aux- 
iliaries, were perhaps more formidable. The cavalry 
were fifteen thousand, drawn, not from the effeminate 
population of Bengal, but from the bolder race which 
inhabits the northern provinces; and the practised eye 



80 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

of Clive could perceive that the men and the horses 
were more powerful than those of the Carnatic. The 
force which he had to oppose to this great multitude 
consisted of only three thousand men. But of these 
nearly a thousand were English; and all were led by 
English officers, and trained in the English discipline. 
Conspicuous in the ranks of the little army were the 
men of the Thirty-Ninth Regiment, which still bears 
on its colors, amidst many honorable additions won 
under Wellington in Spain and Gascony, the name of 
Plassey, and the proud motto, Primus in Indis. 

The battle commenced with a cannonade in which 
the artillery of the Nabob did scarcely any execution 
while the few field-pieces of the EngHsh produced great 
effect. Several of the most distinguished officers in 
Suraj ah Dowlah's service fell. Disorder began to spread 
through his ranks. His own terror increased every 
moment. One of the conspirators urged on him the 
expediency of retreating. The insidious advice, agree- 
ing as it did with what his own terrors suggested, was 
readily received. He ordered his army to fall back, 
and this order decided his fate. Clive snatched the 
moment, and ordered his troops to advance. The con- 
fused and dispirited multitude gave way before the 
onset of disciplined valor. No mob attacked by regu- 
lar soldiers was ever more completely routed. The 
little band of Frenchmen, who alone ventured to 
confront the English, were swept down the stream of 
fugitives. In an hour the forces of Suraj ah Dowlah 
were dispersed, never to reassemble. Only five hun- 



LORD CLIVE 81 

dred of the vanquished were slain. But their camp, 
their guns, their baggage, innumerable wagons, innu- 
merable cattle, remained in the power of the conquer- 
ors. With the loss of twenty-two soldiers killed and 
fifty wounded, Clive had scattered an army of nearly 
sixty thousand men, and subdued an empire larger and 
more populous than Great Britain.^ 

Meer Jaffier had given no assistance to the English 
during the action. But as soon as he saw that the fate 
of the day was decided, he drew off his division of the 
army, and, when the battle was over, sent his congratu- 
lations to his ally. The next morning he repaired to 
the English quarters, not a little uneasy as to the re- 
ception which awaited him there. He gave evident 
signs of alarm when a guard was drawn out to receive 
him with the honors due to his rank. But his appre- 
hensions were speedily removed. Clive came forward 
to meet him, embraced him, saluted him as Nabob of 
the three great provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, 
listened graciously to his apologies, and advised him 
to march without delay to Moorshedabad. 

Surajah Dowlah had fled from the field of battle 
with all the speed with which a fleet camel could carry 
him, and arrived at Moorshedabad in little more than 
twenty-four hours. There he called his councillors 
round him. The wisest advised him to put himself into 
the hands of the English, from whom he had noth- 
ing worse to fear than deposition and confinement. 
But he attributed this suggestion to treachery. Others 
urged him to try the chance of war again. He approved 



82 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

the advice, and issued orders accordingly. But he 
wanted spirit to adhere even during one day to a manly 
resolution. He learned that Meer Jaffier had arrived; 
and his terrors became insupportable. Disguised in a 
mean dress, with a casket of jewels in his hand, he let 
himself down at night from a window of his palace, and, 
accompanied by only two attendants, embarked on the 
river for Patna. 

In a few days Clive arrived at Moorshedabad, es- 
corted by two hundred English soldiers and three hun- 
dred sepoys. For his residence had been assigned a 
palace which was surrounded by a garden so spacious 
that all the troops who accompanied him could con- 
veniently encamp within it. The ceremony of the in- 
stallation of Meer Jaffier was instantly performed. 
Clive led the new Nabob to the seat of honor, placed 
him on it, presented to him, after the immemorial 
fashion of the East, an offering of gold, and then, turn- 
ing to the natives who filled the hall, congratulated 
them on the good fortune which had freed them from a 
tyrant. He was compelled on this occasion to use the 
services of an interpreter; for it is remarkable that, 
long as he resided in India, intimately acquainted as he 
was with Indian politics and with the Indian character, 
and adored as he was by his Indian soldiery, he never 
learned to express himself with facility in any Indian 
language. He is said indeed to have been sometimes 
under the necessity of employing, in his intercourse 
with natives of India, the smattering of Portuguese 
which he had acquired, when a lad, in Brazil. 



LORD CLIVE 83 

The new sovereign was now called upon to fulfil the 
engagements into which he had entered with his allies. 
A conference was held at the house of Jugget Seit, the 
great banker, for the purpose of making the necessary 
arrangements. Omichund came thither, fully believ- 
ing himself to stand high in the favor of Clive, who, 
with dissimulation surpassing even the dissimulation 
of Bengal, had up to that day treated him with un- 
diminished kindness. The white treaty was produced 
and read. Clive then turned to Mr. Scrafton, one of 
the servants of the Company, and said in English, " It 
is now time to undeceive Omichund." "Omichund," 
said Mr. Scrafton in Hindostanee, " the red treaty is a 
trick. You are to have nothing." Omichund fell back 
insensible into the arms of his attendants. He revived; 
but his mind was irreparably ruined. Clive, who, 
though little troubled by scruples of conscience in 
his dealings with Indian politicians, was not inhuman, 
seems to have been touched. He saw Omichund a few 
days later, spoke to him kindly, advised him to make a 
pilgrimage to one of the great temples of India, in the 
hope that change of scene might restore his health, and 
was even disposed, notwithstanding all that had passed, 
again to employ his talents in the public service. But 
from the moment of that sudden shock, the unhappy 
man sank gradually into idiocy. He who had formerly 
been distinguished by the strength of his understand- 
ing and the simplicity of his habits, now squandered 
the remains of his fortune on childish trinkets, and 
loved to exhibit himself dressed in rich garments, and. 



84 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

hung with precious stones. In this abject state he 
languished a few months, and then died. 

We should not think it necessary to offer any re- 
marks for the purpose of directing the judgment of our 
readers, with respect to this transaction, had not Sir 
John Malcolm undertaken to defend it in all its parts. 
He regrets, indeed, that it was necessary to employ 
means so liable to abuse as forgery; but he will not ad- 
mit that any blame attaches to those who deceived the 
deceiver. He thinks that the English were not bound 
to keep faith with one who kept no faith with them, 
and that; if they had fulfilled their engagements with 
the wily Bengalee, so signal an example of successful 
treason would have produced a crowd of imitators. 
Now, we will not discuss this point on any rigid prin- 
ciples of morality. Indeed, it is quite unnecessary to do 
so; for, looking at the question as a question of expedi- 
ency in the lowest sense of the word, and using no argu- 
ments but such as Machiavelli ^ might have employed 
in his conferences with Borgia,^ we are convinced that 
Clive was altogether in the wrong, and that he com- 
mitted, not merely a crime, but a blunder. That hon- 
esty is the best policy, is a maxim which we firmly be- 
lieve to be generally correct, even with respect to the 
temporal interests of individuals; but with respect to 
societies, the rule is subject to still fewer exceptions, 
and that for this reason, that the life of societies is 
longer than the life of individuals. It is possible to 
mention men who have owed great worldly prosperity 
to breaches of private faith; but we doubt whether it 



LORD CLIVE 85 

be possible to mention a state which has on the whole 
been a gainer by a breach of public faith. The entire 
history of British India is an illustration of the great 
truth, that it is not prudent to oppose perfidy to per- 
fidy, and that the most efficient weapon with which 
men can encounter falsehood is truth. During a long 
course of years, the English rulers in India, surrounded 
by allies and enemies whom no engagement could bind, 
have generally acted with sincerity and uprightness; 
and the event has proved that sincerity and upright- 
ness are wisdom. English valor and English intelli- 
gence have done less to extend and to preserve our 
Oriental empire than English veracity. All that we 
could have gained by imitating the doublings, the 
evasions, the fictions, the perjuries which have been 
employed against us is as nothing, when compared 
with what we have gained by being the one power 
in India on whose word reliance can be placed. No 
oath which superstition can devise, no hostage however 
precious, inspires a hundredth part of the confidence 
which is produced by the "yea, yea," and "nay, nay,'' 
of a British envoy. No fastness, however strong by art 
or nature, gives to its inmates a security like that en- 
joyed by the chief who, passing through the territories 
of powerful and deadly enemies, is armed with the 
British guarantee. The mightiest princes of the East 
can scarcely, by the offer of enormous usury, draw forth 
any portion of the wealth which is concealed under the 
hearths of their subjects. The British Government 
offers little more than four per cent.; and avarice 



86 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

hastens to bring forth tens of millions of rupees from 
its most secret repositories. A hostile monarch may 
promise mountains of gold to our sepoys, on condition 
that they will desert the standard of the Company. The 
Company promises only a moderate pension after a 
long service. But every sepoy knows that the promise 
of the Company will be kept: he knows that if he lives 
a hundred years his rice and salt are as secure as the 
salary of the Governor-General: and he knows that 
there is not another state in India which would not, in 
spite of the most solemn vows, leave him to die of 
hunger in a ditch as soon as he had ceased to be useful. 
The greatest advantage which a government can pos- 
sess is to be the one trustworthy government in the 
midst of governments which nobody can trust. This 
advantage we enjoy in Asia. Had we acted during the 
last two generations on the principles which Sir John 
Malcolm appears to have considered as sound, had we, 
as often as we had to deal with people like Omichund, 
retaliated by lying and forging, and breaking faith, 
after their fashion, it is our firm belief that no cour- 
age or capacity could have upheld our empire. 

Sir John Malcolm admits that Clive's breach of faith 
could be justified only by the strongest necessity. As 
we think that breach of faith not only unnecessary, but 
most inexpedient, we need hardly say that we alto- 
gether condemn it. 

Omichund was not the only victim of the revolution. 
Surajah Dowlah was taken a few days after his flight, 
and was brought before Meer Jaffier. There he flung 



LORD CLIVE 87 

himself on the ground in convulsions of fear, and with 
tears and loud cries implored the mercy which he 
had never shown. Meer Jaffier hesitated; but his son 
Meeran, a youth of seventeen, who in feebleness of 
brain and savageness of nature greatly resembled the 
wretched captive, was implacable. Surajah Dowlah 
was led into a secret chamber, to which in a short time 
the ministers of death were sent. In this act the Eng- 
lish bore no part; and Meer Jaffier understood so much 
of their feelings, that he thought it necessary to apol- 
ogize to them for having avenged them on their most 
malignant enemy. 

The shower of wealth ^ now fell copiously on the 
Company and its servants. A sum of eight hundred 
thousand pounds sterling, in coined silver, was sent 
down the river from Moorshedabad to Fort William. 
The fleet which conveyed this treasure consisted of 
more than a hundred boats, and performed its trium- 
phal voyage with flags flying and music playing. Cal- 
cutta, which a few months before had been desolate, 
was now more prosperous than ever. Trade revived; 
and the signs of affluence appeared in every English 
house. As to Clive, there was no limit to his acquisi- 
tions but his own moderation. The treasury of Bengal 
was thrown open to him. There were piled up, after 
the usage of Indian princes, immense masses of coin, 
among which might not seldom be detected the florins ^ 
and by z ants ^ with which, before any European ship '^ 
had turned the Cape of Good Hope, the Venetians pur- 
chased the stuffs and spices of the East. Clive walked 



88 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

between heaps of gold and silver, crowned with rubies 
and diamonds, and was at liberty to help himself. 
He accepted between two and three hundred thousand 
pounds. 

The pecuniary transactions between Meer Jaffier and 
Clive were sixteen years later condemned by the pub- 
lic voice, and severely criticised in Parliament. They 
are vehemently defended by Sir John Malcolm. The 
accusers of the victorious general represented his gains 
as the wages of corruption, or as plunder extorted 
at the point of the sword from a helpless ally. The 
biographer, 1 on the other hand, considers these great 
acquisitions as free gifts, honorable alike to the donor 
and to the receiver, and compares them to the rewards 
bestowed by foreign powers on Marlborough, on Nel- 
son, and on Wellington. It had always, he says, been 
customary in the East to give and receive presents; 
and there was, as yet, no act of Parliament positively 
prohibiting English functionaries in India from prof- 
iting by this Asiatic usage. This reasoning, we own, 
does not quite satisfy us. We do not suspect Clive of 
selling the interests of his employers or his country; 
but we cannot acquit him of having done what, if not 
in itself evil, was yet of evil example. Nothing is more 
clear than that a general ought to be the servant of 
his own government, and of no other. It follows that 
whatever rewards he receives for his services ought to 
be given either by his own government, or with the full 
knowledge and approbation of his own government. 
This rule ought to be strictly maintained even with 



LORD CLIVE 89 

respect to the merest bauble, with respect to a cross, 
a medal, or a yard of colored ribbon. But how can 
any government be well served, if those who command 
its forces are at liberty, without its permission, without 
its privity, to accept princely fortunes from its allies? 
It is idle to say that there was then no Act of Parlia- 
ment prohibiting the practice of taking presents from 
Asiatic sovereigns. It is not on the Act which was 
passed at a later period for the purpose of preventing 
any such taking of presents, but on grounds which were 
valid before the Act was passed, on grounds of common 
law and common sense, that we arraign the conduct of 
Clive. There is no Act that we know of, prohibiting the 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from being in the 
pay of continental powers, but it is not the less true 
that a Secretary who should receive a secret pension 
from France would grossly violate his duty, and would 
deserve severe punishment. Sir John Malcolm com- 
pares the conduct of Clive with that of the Duke of 
Wellington. Suppose, — and we beg pardon for putting 
such a supposition even for the sake of argument, — 
that the Duke of Wellington had, after the campaign 
of 1815, and while he commanded the army of occupa- 
tion in France, privately accepted two hundred thous- 
and pounds from Louis the Eighteenth, as a mark of 
gratitude for the great services which his Grace had ren- 
dered to the House of Bourbon; what would be thought 
of such a transaction? Yet the statute-book no more 
forbids the taking of presents in Europe now than it 
forbade the taking of presents in Asia then. 



90 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

At the same time, it must be admitted that in dive's 
case, there were many extenuating circumstances. He 
considered himself as the general, not of the Crown, 
but of the Company. The Company had, by implica- 
tion at least, authorized its agents to enrich themselves 
by means of the liberality of the native princes, and by 
other means still more objectionable. It was hardly 
to be expected that the servant should entertain stricter 
notions of his duty than were entertained by his mas- 
ters. Though Clive did not distinctly acquaint his em- 
ployers with what had taken place and request their 
sanction, he did not, on the other hand, by studied con- 
cealment, show that he was conscious of having done 
wrong. On the contrary, he avowed with the greatest 
openness that the Nabob's bounty had raised him to 
affluence. Lastly, though we think that he ought not 
in such a way to have taken anything, we must admit 
that he deserves praise for having taken so little. 
He accepted twenty lacs of rupees. It would have 
cost him only a word to make the twenty forty. It 
was a very easy exercise of virtue to declaim in Eng- 
land against Clive's rapacity; but not one in a hun- 
dred of his accusers would have shown so much self- 
command in the treasury of Moorshedabad. 

Meer Jaffier could be upheld on the throne only by 
the hand which had placed him upon it. He was not, 
indeed, a mere boy; nor had he been so unfortunate 
as to be born in the purple. He was not, therefore, 
quite so imbecile or quite so depraved as his predeces- 
sor had been. But he had none of the talents or vir- 



LORD CLIVE ' 91 

tues which his post required; and his son and heir, 
Meeran, was another Surajah Dowlah. The recent rev- 
olution had unsettled the minds of men. Many chiefs 
were in open insurrection against the new Nabob. 
The viceroy of the rich and powerful province of Oude/ 
who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, was now 
in truth an independent sovereign, menaced Bengal 
with invasion. Nothing but the talents and author- 
ity of Clive could support the tottering government. 
While things were in this state, a ship arrived with des- 
patches which had been written at the India House 
before the news of the battle of Plassey had reached 
London. The Directors had determined to place the 
English settlements in Bengal under a government con- 
stituted in the most cumbrous and absurd manner; and, 
to make the matter worse, no place in the arrangement 
was assigned to Clive. The persons who were selected 
to form this new government, greatly to their honor, 
took on themselves the responsibility of disobeying 
these preposterous orders, and invited Clive to exercise 
the supreme authority. He consented; and it soon ap- 
peared that the servants of the Company had only an- 
ticipated the wishes of their employers. The Directors, 
on receiving news of Clive's brilliant success, instantly 
appointed him governor of their possessions in Bengal, 
with the highest marks of gratitude and esteem. His 
power was now boundless, and far surpassed even that 
which Dupleix had attained in the south of India. 
Meer Jafher regarded him with slavish awe. On one 
occasion, the Nabob spoke with severity to a native 



92 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

chief of high rank, whose followers had been engaged in 
a brawl with some of the Company's sepoys. " Are you 
yet to learn/' he said, " who that Colonel Clive is, and in 
what station God has placed him?'' The chief, who, 
as a famous jester and an old friend of Meer Jaffier, 
could venture to take liberties, answered, "I affront 
the Colonel ! I, who never get up in the morning with- 
out making three low bows to his jackass!" This was 
hardly an exaggeration. Europeans and natives were 
alike at Clive's feet. The English regarded him as the 
only man who could force Meer Jaffier to keep his en- 
gagements with them. Meer Jaffier regarded him as the 
only man who could protect the new dynasty against 
turbulent subjects and encroaching neighbors. 

It is but justice to say that Clive used his power ably 
and vigorously for the advantage of his country. He 
sent forth an expedition against the tract lying to the 
north of the Carnatic.^ In this tract the French still 
had the ascendency; and it was important to dislodge 
them. The conduct of the enterprise was intrusted to 
an officer of the name of Forde, who was then little 
known, but in whom the keen eye of the governor had 
detected military talents of a high order. The success 
of the expedition was rapid and splendid. 

While a considerable part of the army of Bengal was 
thus engaged at a distance, a new and formidable 
danger menaced the western frontier. The Great Mo- 
gul was a prisoner at Delhi in the hands of a subject. 
His eldest son, named Shah Alum, destined to be, dur- 
ing many years, the sport of adverse fortune, and to be 



LORD CLIVE 93 

a tool in the hands, first of the Mahrattas, and then of 
the English, had fled from the palace of his father. His 
birth was still revered in India. Some powerful princes, 
the Nabob of Oude in particular, were inclined to 
favor him. Shah Alum found it easy to draw to his 
standard great numbers of the military adventurers 
with whom every part of the country swarmed. An 
army of forty thousand men, of various races and re- 
ligions, Mahrattas, Rohillas, Jauts, and Afghans, was 
speedily assembled round him; and he formed the de- 
sign of overthrowing the upstart whom the English had 
elevated to a throne, and of establishing his own au- 
thority throughout Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. 

Meer Jaffier's terror was extreme; and the only ex- 
pedient which occurred to him was to purchase, by the 
payment of a large sum of money, an accommodation 
with Shah Alum. This expedient had been repeatedly 
employed by those who, before him, had ruled the 
rich and unwarlike provinces near the mouth of the 
Ganges. But Clive treated the suggestion with a scorn 
worthy of his strong sense and dauntless courage. " If 
you do this," he wrote, "you will have the Nabob of 
Oude, the Mahrattas, and many more, come from all 
parts of the confines of your country, who will bully 
you out of money till you have none left in your treas- 
ury. I beg your Excellency will rely on the fidelity of 
the English, and of those troops which are attached to 
you." He wrote in a similar strain to the governor of 
Patna, a brave native soldier whom he highly esteemed. 
" Come to no terms; defend your city to the last. Rest 



94 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

assured that the English are stanch and firm friends, 
and that they never desert a cause in which they have 
once taken a part." 

He kept his word. Shah Alum had invested Patna, 
and was on the point of proceeding to storm, when 
he learned that the Colonel was advancing by forced 
marches. The whole army which was approaching 
consisted only of four hundred and fifty Europeans and 
two thousand five hundred sepoys. But Clive and his 
Englishmen were now objects of dread over all the 
East. As soon as his advanced guard appeared, the 
besiegers fled before him. A few French adventurers 
who were about the person of the prince advised him 
to try the chance of battle; but in vain. In a few days 
this great army, which had been regarded with so much 
uneasiness by the court of Moorshedabad, melted away 
before the mere terror of the British name. 

The conqueror returned in triumph to Fort William. 
The joy of Meer Jaffier was as unbounded as his fears 
had been, and led him to bestow on his preserver a 
princely token of gratitude. The quit-rent ^ which the 
East India Company were bound to pay to the Nabob 
for the extensive lands held by them to the south of 
Calcutta amounted to near thirty thousand pounds 
sterling a year. The whole of this splendid estate, 
sufficient to support with dignity the highest rank of 
the British peerage, was now conferred on Clive for life. 

This present we think Clive justified in accepting. 
It was a present which, from its very nature, could be 
no secret. In fact, the Company itself was his tenant, 



LORD CLIVE 95 

and by its acquiescence, signified its approbation of 
Meer Jaffier's grant. 

But the gratitude of Meer Jaffier did not last long. 
He had for some time felt that the powerful ally who 
had set him up might pull him down, and had been 
looking round for support against the formidable 
strength by which he had himself been hitherto sup- 
ported. He knew that it would be impossible to find 
among the natives of India any force which would look 
the Colonel's little army in the face. The French power 
in Bengal was extinct. But the fame of the Dutch had 
anciently been great in the Eastern seas; and it was not 
yet distinctly known in Asia how much the power of 
Holland had declined in Europe. Secret communica- 
tions passed between the court of Moorshedabad and 
the Dutch factory at Chinsurah; and urgent letters 
were sent from Chinsurah, exhorting the government 
of Batavia ^ to fit out an expedition which might bal- 
ance the power of the English in Bengal. The authori- 
ties of Batavia, eager to extend the influence of their 
country, and still more eager to obtain for themselves 
a share of the wealth which had recently raised so many 
English adventurers to opulence, equipped a powerful 
armament. Seven large ships from Java arrived un- 
expectedly in the Hoogley. The military force on 
board amounted to fifteen hundred men, of whom 
about one-half were Europeans. The enterprise was 
well timed. Clive had sent such large detachments to 
oppose the French in the Carnatic that his army was 
now inferior in number to that of the Dutch. He knew 



96 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

that Meer Jaffier secretly favored the invaders. He 
knew that he took on himself a serious responsibility if 
he attacked the forces of a friendly power; that the 
English ministers could not wish to see a war with 
Holland added to that in which they were already en- 
gaged with France; that they might disavow his acts; 
that they might punish him. He had recently remitted 
a great part of his fortune to Europe, through the 
Dutch East India Company; and he had therefore a 
strong interest in avoiding any quarrel. But he was 
satisfied that, if he suffered the Batavian armament to 
pass up the river and to j oin the garrison of Chinsurah, 
Meer Jaffier would throw himself into the arms of these 
new allies, and that the English ascendency in Bengal 
would be exposed to most serious danger. He took his 
resolution with characteristic boldness, and was most 
ably seconded by his officers, particularly by Colonel 
Forde, to whom the most important part of the opera- 
tions was intrusted. The Dutch attempted to force a 
passage. The English encountered them both by land 
and water. On both elements the enemy had a great 
superiority of force. On both they were signally de- 
feated. Their ships were taken. Their troops were put 
to a total rout. Almost all the European soldiers, who 
constituted the main strength of the invading army, 
were killed or taken. The conquerors sat down be- 
fore Chinsurah ; and the chiefs of that settlement, now 
thoroughly humbled, consented to the terms which 
Clive dictated. They engaged to build no fortifica- 
tions, and to raise no troops beyond a small force nee- 



LORD CLIVE 97 

essary for the police of their factories; and it was dis- 
tinctly provided that any violation of these covenants 
should be punished with instant expulsion from Bengal. 
Three months after this great victory, Clive sailed 
for England. At home, honors and rewards awaited 
him, not indeed equal to his claims or to his ambition, 
but still such as, when his age, his rank in the army, 
and his original place in society are considered, must 
be pronounced rare and splendid. He was raised to 
the Irish peerage,^ and encouraged to expect an Eng- 
lish title. George the Third, who had just ascended 
the throne, received him with great distinction. The 
ministers paid him marked attention; and Pitt,^ whose 
influence in the House of Commons and in the coun- 
try was unbounded, was eager to mark his regard for 
one whose exploits had contributed so much to the 
lustre of that memorable period.^ The great orator had 
already in Parliament described Clive as a heaven-born 
general, as a man who, bred to the labor of the desk, 
had displayed a military genius which might excite the 
admiration of the King of Prussia.^ There were then 
no reporters ^ in the gallery ; but these words, emphati- 
cally spoken by the first statesman of the age, had 
passed from mouth to mouth, had been transmitted to 
Clive in Bengal, and had greatly delighted and flat- 
tered him. Indeed, since the death of Wolfe, Clive was 
the only English general of whom his countrymen had 
much reason to be proud. The Duke of Cumberland 
had been generally unfortunate ; and his single victory,^ 
having been gained over his countrymen and used with 



98 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

merciless severity, had been more fatal to his popular- 
ity than his many defeats. Conway/ versed in the 
learning of his profession, and personally courageous, 
wanted vigor and capacity. Granby,^ honest, generous, 
and as brave as a lion, had neither science nor genius. 
Sackville,^ inferior in knowledge and abilities to none 
of his contemporaries, had incurred, unjustly as we be- 
lieve, the imputation most fatal to the character of a 
soldier. It was under the command of a foreign gen- 
eral ^ that the British had triumphed at Minden and 
Warburg. The people, therefore, as was natural, 
greeted with pride and delight a captain of their own, 
whose native courage and self-taught skill had placed 
him on a level with the great tacticians of Germany. 
The wealth of Clive was such as enabled him to vie 
with the first grandees of England. There remains 
proof that he had remitted more than a hundred and 
eighty thousand pounds through the Dutch East India 
Company, and more than forty thousand pounds 
through the English Company. The amount which he 
had sent home through private houses was also con- 
siderable. He had invested great sums in jewels, then 
a very common mode of remittance from India. His 
purchases of diamonds at Madras alone amounted to 
twenty-five thousand pounds. Besides a great mass 
of ready money, he had his Indian estate, valued by 
himself at twenty-seven thousand a year. His whole 
annual income, in the opinion of Sir John Malcolm, who 
is desirous to state it as low as possible, exceeded forty 
thousand pounds; and incomes of forty thousand 



LORD CLIVE 99 

pounds at the time of the accession of George the Third 
were at least as rare as incomes of a hundred thousand 
pounds now. We may safely affirm that no English- 
man who started with nothing has ever, in any line of 
life, created such a fortune at the early age of thirty- 
four. 

It would be unjust not to add that Clive made a cred- 
itable use of his riches. As soon as the battle of Plassey 
had laid the foundation of his fortune, he sent ten thou- 
sand pounds to his sisters, bestowed as much more on 
other poor friends and relations, ordered his agent to 
pay eight hundred a year to his parents, and to insist 
that they should keep a carriage, and settled five hun- 
dred a year on his old commander Lawrence, whose 
means were very slender. The whole sum which Clive 
expended in this manner may be calculated at fifty 
thousand pounds. 

He now set himself to cultivate Parliamentary in- 
terest. His purchases of land seem to have been made 
in great measure with that view, and after the general 
election of 1761, he found himself in the House of Com- 
mons, at the head of a body of dependents whose sup- 
port must have been important to any administration. 
In English politics, however, he did not take a promi- 
nent part. His first attachments, as we have seen, were 
to Mr. Fox; at a later period he was attracted by the 
genius and success of Mr. Pitt; but finally he connected 
himself in the closest manner with George Grenville. 
Early in the session of 1764, when the ihegal and im- 
politic persecution of that worthless demagogue Wilkes^ 



100 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

had strongly excited the public mind, the town was 
amused by an anecdote, which we have seen in some 
unpublished memoirs of Horace Walpole. Old Mr. 
Richard Clive, who since his son's elevation had been 
introduced into society for which his former habits had 
not well fitted him, presented himself at the levee. The 
King asked him where Lord Clive was. " He will be in 
town very soon," said the old gentleman, loud enough 
to be heard by the whole circle, " and then your Majesty 
will have another vote." 

But in truth all Olive's views were directed towards 
the country in which he had so eminently distinguished 
himself as a soldier and a statesman; and it was by con- 
siderations relating to India that his conduct as a pub- 
lic man in England was regulated. The power of the 
Oompany, though an anomaly, is in our time, we are 
firmly persuaded, a beneficial anomaly. In the time 
of Olive, it was not merely an anomaly, but a nuisance. 
There was no Board of Oontrol.^ The Directors were 
for the most part mere traders, ignorant of general 
politics, ignorant of the peculiarities of the empire 
which had strangely become subject to them. The 
Oourt of Proprietors, wherever it chose to interfere, 
was able to have its way. That court was more nu- 
merous, as well as more powerful, than at present; for 
then every share of five hundred pounds conferred a 
vote. The meetings were large, stormy, even riotous, 
the debates indecently virulent. All the turbulence of 
a Westminster election, all the trickery and corruption 
of a Grampound election, disgraced the proceedings of 



LORD CLIVE 101 

this assembly on questions of the most solemn impor- 
tance. Fictitious votes were manufactured on a gigan- 
tic scale. Clive himself laid out a hundred thousand 
pounds in the purchase of stock, which he then divided 
among nominal proprietors on whom he could depend, 
and whom he brought down in his train to every dis- 
cussion and every ballot. Others did the same, though 
not to quite so enormous an extent. 

The interest taken by the public of England in Indian 
questions was then far greater than at present,, and the 
reason is obvious. At present a writer enters the ser- 
vice young; he climbs slowly; he is fortunate if, at 
forty-five, he can return to his country with an annuity 
of a thousand a year, and with savings amounting to 
thirty thousand pounds. A great quantity of wealth 
is made by English functionaries in India; but no sin- 
gle functionary makes a very large fortune, and what 
is made is slowly, hardly, and honestly earned. Only 
four or five high political offices are reserved for public 
men from England. The residencies, the secretary- 
ships, the seats in the boards of revenue and in the 
Sudder courts are all filled by men who have given the 
best years of life to the service of the Company; nor 
can any talents however splendid or any connections 
however powerful obtain those lucrative posts for any 
person who has not entered by the regular door, and 
mounted by the regular gradations. Seventy years 
ago, less money was brought home from the East than 
in our time. But it was divided among a very much 
smaller number of persons, and immense sums were 



102 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

often accumulated in a few months. Any Englishman, 
whatever his age might be, might hope to be one of the 
lucky emigrants. If he made a good speech in Lead- 
enhall Street/ or published a clever pamphlet in de- 
fence of the chairman, he might be sent out in the Com- 
pany's service, and might return in three or four years 
as rich as Pigot or as Clive. Thus the India House 
was a lottery-office, which invited everybody to take a 
chance, and held out ducal fortunes as the prizes des- 
tined for the lucky few. As soon as it was known that 
there was a part of the world where a lieutenant-colonel 
had one morning received as a present an estate as 
large as that of the Earl of Bath or the Marquess of 
Rockingham, and where it seemed that such a trifle as 
ten or twenty thousand pounds was to be had by any 
British functionary for the asking, society began to 
exhibit all the symptoms of the South Sea year,^ a 
feverish excitement, an ungovernable impatience to be 
rich, a contempt for slow, sure, and moderate gains. 

At the head of the preponderating party in the India 
House, had long stood a powerful, able, and ambitious 
director of the name of Sulivan. He had conceived 
a strong jealousy of Clive, and remembered with bit- 
terness the audacity with which the late governor of 
Bengal had repeatedly set at naught the authority of 
the distant Directors of the Company. An apparent 
reconciliation took place after Clive's arrival; but en- 
mity remained deeply rooted in the hearts of both. 
The whole body of Directors was then chosen annually. 
At the election of 1763, Clive attempted to break down 



LORD CLIVE 103 

the power of the dominant faction. The contest was 
carried on with a violence which he describes as tre- 
mendous. Sulivan was victorious, and hastened to 
take his revenge. The grant of rent which Clive had 
received from Meer Jaffier was, in the opinion of the 
best English lawyers, valid. It had been made by ex- 
actly the same authority from which the Company had 
received their chief possessions in Bengal, and the Com- 
pany had long acquiesced in it. The Directors, how- 
ever, most unjustly determined to confiscate it, and 
Clive was forced to file a bill in Chancery against them. 
But a great and sudden turn in affairs was at hand. 
Every ship from Bengal had for some time brought 
alarming tidings. The internal misgovernment of the 
province had reached such a point that it could go no 
further. What, indeed, was to be expected from a body 
of public servants exposed to temptation such as that, 
as Clive once said,^ flesh and blood could not bear it, 
armed with irresistible power, and responsible only to 
the corrupt, turbulent, distracted, ill-informed Com- 
pany, situated at such a distance that the average 
interval between the sending of a despatch and the 
receipt of an answer was above a year and a half? Ac- 
cordingly, during the five years which followed the de- 
parture of Clive from Bengal, the misgovernment of 
the English was carried to a point such as seems hardly 
compatible with the very existence of society. The 
Roman proconsul,^ who, in a year or two, squeezed out 
of a province the means of rearing marble palaces and 
baths on the shores of Campania, of drinking from am- 



104 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

ber, of feasting on singing birds, of exhibiting armies 
of gladiators and flocks of camelopards; the Spanish 
viceroy/ who, leaving behind him the curses of Mexico 
or Lima, entered Madrid with a long train of gilded 
coaches, and of sumpter-horses trapped and shod with 
silver, were now outdone. Cruelty, indeed, properly 
so called, was not among the vices of the servants of the 
Company. But cruelty itself could hardly have pro- 
duced greater evils than sprang from their unprincipled 
eagerness to be rich. They pulled down their creature, 
Meer Jaffier. They set up in his place another Nabob, 
named Meer Cossim. But Meer Cossim had talents 
and a will; and, though sufficiently inclined to oppress 
his subjects himself, he could not bear to see them 
ground to the dust by oppressions which yielded him 
no profit, nay, which destroyed his revenue in its very 
source. The English accordingly pulled down Meer 
Cossim, and set up Meer Jaffier again; and Meer Cos- 
sim, after revenging himself by a massacre surpassing 
in atrocity that of the Black Hole, fled to the domin- 
ions of the Nabob of Oude. At every one of these rev- 
olutions, the new prince divided among his foreign 
masters whatever could be scraped together from the 
treasury of his fallen predecessor. The immense pop- 
ulation of his dominions was given up as a prey to 
those who had made him a sovereign, and who could 
.unmake him. The servants of the Company obtained, 
not for their employers, but for themselves, a monop- 
oly of almost the whole internal trade. They forced 
the natives to buy dear and to sell cheap. Thej in- 



LORD CLIVE 105 

suited with impunity the tribunals, the police, and the 
fiscal authorities of the country. They covered with 
their protection a set of native dependents who ranged 
through the provinces, spreading desolation and terror 
wherever they appeared. Every servant of a British 
factor was armed with all the power of his master; and 
his master was armed with all the power of the Com- 
pany. Enormous fortunes were thus rapidly accumu- 
lated at Calcutta, while thirty millions of human be- 
ings were reduced to the extremity of wretchedness. 
They had been accustomed to live under tyranny, but 
never under tyranny like this. They found the little 
finger of the Company thicker than the loins ^ of Sura- 
jah Dowlah. Under their old masters they had at least 
one resource: when the evil became insupportable, the 
people rose and pulled down the government. But 
the English government was not to be so shaken off. 
That government, oppressive as the most oppressive 
form of barbarian despotism, was strong with all the 
strength of civilization. It resembled the government 
of evil Genii, rather than the government of human 
tyrants. Even despair could not inspire the soft Ben- 
galee with courage to confront men of English breed, 
the hereditary nobility of mankind, whose skill and 
valor had so often triumphed in spite of tenfold odds. 
The unhappy race never attempted resistance. Some- 
times they submitted in patient misery. Sometimes 
they fled from the white man, as their fathers had been 
used to fly from the Mahratta; and the palanquin of the 
English traveller was often carried through silent vil- 



106 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

lages and towns, which the report of his approach had 
made desolate. 

The foreign lords of Bengal were naturally objects 
of hatred to all the neighboring powers; and to all 
the haughty race presented a dauntless front. The 
English armies, everywhere outnumbered, were every- 
where victorious. A succession of commanders, formed 
in the school of Clive, still maintained the fame of their 
country. " It must be acknowledged,'' says the Mussul- 
man historian ^ of those times, '' that this nation's pres- 
ence of mind, firmness of temper, and undaunted bra- 
very, are past all question. They join the most resolute 
courage to the most cautious prudence; nor have they 
their equals in the art of ranging themselves in battle 
array and fighting in order. If to so many military 
qualifications they knew how to join the arts of govern- 
ment, if they exerted as much ingenuity and solicitude 
in relieving the people of God, as they do in whatever 
concerns their military affairs, no nation in the world 
would be preferable to them, or worthier of command. 
But the people under their dominion groan everywhere, 
and are reduced to poverty and distress. Oh God! 
come to the assistance of thine afflicted servants, and 
deliver them from the oppressions which they suffer." 

It was impossible, however, that even the military 
establishment should long continue exempt from the 
vices which pervaded every other part of the govern- 
ment. Rapacity, luxury, and the spirit of insubordi- 
nation, spread from the civil service to the officers of 
the army, and from the officers to the soldiers. The 



LORD CLIVE 107 

evil continued to grow till every mess-room became 
the seat of conspiracy and cabal, and till the sepoys ^ 
could be kept in order only by wholesale executions. 

At length the state of things in Bengal began to ex- 
cite uneasiness at home. A succession of revolutions; 
a disorganized administration; the natives pillaged, 
yet the Company not enriched; every fleet bringing 
back fortunate adventurers who were able to purchase 
manors and to build stately dwellings, yet bringing 
back also alarming accounts of the financial prospects 
of the government; war on the frontiers; disaffection 
in the army; the national character disgraced by ex- 
cesses resembling those of Verres and Pizarro;^ such 
was the spectacle which dismayed those who were con- 
versant with Indian affairs. The general cry was that 
Clive, and Clive alone, could save the empire which 
he had founded. 

This feeling manifested itself in the strongest man- 
ner at a very full General Court of Proprietors. Men 
of all parties, forgetting their feuds and trembling for 
their dividends, exclaimed that Clive was the man 
whom the crisis required, that the oppressive proceed- 
ings which had been adopted respecting his estate 
ought to be dropped, and that he ought to be entreated 
to return to India. 

Clive rose. As to his estate, he said, he would make 
such propositions to the Directors, as would, he 
trusted, lead to an amicable settlement. But there 
was a still greater difficulty. It was proper to tell them 
that he never would undertake the government of 



108 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

Bengal while his enemy Sulivan was Chairman of the 
Company. The tumult was violent. Sulivan could 
scarcely obtain a hearing. An overwhelming majority 
of the assembly was on Clive's side. Sulivan wished 
to try the result of a ballot. But, according to the 
by-laws of the Company, there can be no ballot ex- 
cept on a requisition signed by nine proprietors; and, 
though hundreds were present, nine persons could not 
be found to set their hands to such a requisition. 

Clive was in consequence nominated Governor and 
Commander-in-chief of the British possessions in Ben- 
gal. But he adhered to his declaration, and refused 
to enter on his office till the event of the next election 
of directors should be known. The contest was ob- 
stinate; but Clive triumphed. Sulivan, lately absolute 
master of the India House, was within a vote of losing 
his own seat; and both the chairman and the deputy- 
chairman were friends of the new governor. 

Such were the circumstances under which Lord 
Clive sailed for the third and last time to India. In 
May, 1765, he reached Calcutta; and he found the 
whole machine of government even more fearfully dis- 
organized than he had anticipated. Meer Jaffier, who 
had some time before lost his eldest son, Meeran, had 
died while Clive was on his voyage out. The English 
functionaries at Calcutta had already received from 
home strict orders not to accept presents from the na- 
tive princes. But, eager for gain, and unaccustomed 
to respect the commands of their distant, ignorant, 
and negligent masters, they again set up the throne of 



LORD CLIVE 109 

Bengal to sale. About one hundred and forty thou- 
sand pounds sterling were distributed among nine of 
the most powerful servants of the Company; and, in 
consideration of this bribe, an infant son of the de- 
ceased Nabob was placed on the seat of his father. 
The news of the ignominious bargain met Clive on 
his arrival. In a private letter, written, immediately 
after his landing, to an intimate friend, he poured 
out his feelings in language which, proceeding from 
a man so daring, so resolute, and so little given to 
theatrical display of sentiment, seems to us singularly 
touching. " Alas ! " he says, " how is the English name 
sunk! I could not avoid paying the tribute of a few 
tears to the departed and lost fame of the British na- 
tion — irrecoverably so, I fear. However, I do declare 
by that great Being who is the searcher of all hearts, 
and to whom we must be accountable if there be a 
hereafter, that I am come out with a mind superior to 
all corruption, and that I am determined to destroy 
these great and growing evils, or perish in the at- 
tempt. " 

The Council met, and Clive stated to them his full 
determination to make a thorough reform, and to use 
for that purpose the whole of the ample authority, 
civil and military, which had been confided to him. 
Johnstone, one of the boldest and worst men in the 
assembly, made some show of opposition. Clive in- 
terrupted him, and haughtily demanded whether he 
meant to question the power of the new government. 
Johnstone was cowed, and disclaimed any such inten- 



no MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

tion. All the faces round the board grew long and 
pale, and not another syllable of dissent was uttered. 

Clive redeemed his pledge. He remained in India 
about a year and a half; and in that short time effected 
one of the most extensive, difficult, and salutary re- 
forms that ever was accomplished by any statesman. 
This was the part of his life on which he afterwards 
looked back with the most pride. He had it in his 
power to triple his already splendid fortune; to con- 
nive at abuses while pretending to remove them; to 
conciliate the good-will of all the English in Bengal, 
by giving up to their rapacity a helpless and timid 
race, who knew not where lay the island which sent 
forth their oppressors, and whose complaints had 
little chance of being heard across fifteen thousand 
miles of ocean. He knew that, if he applied himself in 
earnest to the work of reformation, he should raise 
every bad passion in arms against him. He knew how 
unscrupulous, how implacable, would be the hatred 
of those ravenous adventurers who, having counted 
on accumulating in a few months fortunes sufficient to 
support peerages, should find all their hopes frustrated. 
But he had chosen the good part; and he called up 
all the force of his mind for a battle far harder than 
that of Plassey. At first success seemed hopeless; but 
soon all obstacles began to bend before that iron cour- 
age and that vehement will. The receiving of presents 
from the natives was rigidly prohibited. The private 
trade of the servants of the Company was put down. 
The whole settlement seemed to be set, as one man, 



LORD CLIVE 111 

against these measures. But the inexorable governor 
declared that, if he could not find support at Fort 
William, he would procure it elsewhere, and sent for 
some civil servants from Madras to assist him in carry- 
ing on the administration. The most factious of his 
opponents he turned out of their offices. The rest 
submitted to what was inevitable; and in a very short 
time all resistance was quelled. 

But Clive was far too wise a man not to see that the 
recent abuses were partly to be ascribed to a cause 
which could not fail to produce similar abuses as soon 
as the pressure of his strong hand was withdrawn. 
The Company had followed a mistaken policy with 
respect to the remuneration of its servants. The sal- 
aries were too low to afford even those indulgences 
which are necessary to the health and comfort of 
Europeans in a tropical climate. To lay by a rupee 
from such scanty pay was impossible. It could not 
be supposed that men of even average abilities would 
consent to pass the best years of life in exile, under 
a burning sun, for no other consideration than these 
stinted wages. It had accordingly been understood, 
from a very early period, that the Company's agents 
were at liberty to enrich themselves by their private 
trade. This practice had been seriously injurious to 
the commercial interests of the corporation. That very 
intelligent observer, Sir Thomas Roe, in the reign of 
James the First, strongly urged the Directors to apply 
a remedy to the abuse. "Absolutely prohibit the pri- 
vate trade, " said he; "for your business will be better 



112 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

done. I know this is harsh. Men profess they come 
not for bare wages. But you will take away this plea 
if you give great wages to their content; and then you 
know what you part from. " 

In spite of this excellent advice, the Company ad- 
hered to the old system, paid low salaries, and con- 
nived at the indirect gains of the agents. The pay of 
a member of Council was only three hundred pounds a 
year. Yet it was notorious that such a functionary 
could not live in India for less than ten times that sum; 
and it could not be expected that he would be con- 
tent to live even handsomely in India without laying 
up something against the time of his return to England. 
This system, before the conquest of Bengal, might af- 
fect the amount of the dividends payable to the pro- 
prietors, but could do little harm in any other way. 
But the Company was now a ruling body. Its servants 
might still be called factors, junior merchants, senior 
merchants. But they were in truth proconsuls, pro- 
praetors, procurators of extensive regions. They had 
immense power. Their regular pay was universally 
admitted to be insufficient. They were, by the ancient 
usage of the service, and by the implied permission of 
their employers, warranted in enriching themselves by 
indirect means; and this had been the origin of the 
frightful oppression and corruption which had deso- 
lated Bengal. Clive saw clearly that it was absurd to 
give men power, and to require them to live in penury. 
He justly concluded that no reform could be effectual 
which should not be coupled with a plan for liberally 



LORD CLIVE 113 

«' 

remunerating the civil servants of the Company. The 
Directors, he knew, were not disposed to sanction any 
increase of the salaries out of their own treasury. The 
only course which remained open to the governor was 
one which exposed him to much misrepresentation, but 
which we think him fully justified in adopting. He 
appropriated to the support of the service the monop- 
oly of salt, which has formed, down to our time, a prin- 
cipal head of Indian revenue; and he divided the pro- 
ceeds according to a scale which seems to have been 
not unreasonably fixed. He was in consequence ac- 
cused by his enemies, and has been accused by histo- 
rians,^ of disobeying his instructions, of violating his 
promises, of authorizing that very abuse which it was 
his special mission to destroy, namely, the trade of 
the Company's servants. But every discerning and 
impartial judge will admit that there was really nothing 
in common between the system which he set up. and 
that which he was sent to destroy. The monopoly of 
salt had been a source of revenue to the governments 
of India before Clive was born. It continued to be so 
long after his death. The civil servants were clearly 
entitled to a maintenance out of the revenue; and all 
that Clive did was to charge a particular portion of the 
revenue with their maintenance. He thus, while he 
put an end to the practices by which gigantic fortunes 
had been rapidly accumulated, gave to every British 
functionary employed in the East the means of slowly, 
but surely, acquiring a competence. Yet, such is the 
injustice of mankind, that none of those acts which 



114 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

are the real stains of his Hf e has drawn on him so much 
obloquy as this measure, which was in truth a reform 
necessary to the success of all his other reforms. 

He had quelled the opposition of the civil service; 
that of the army was more formidable. Some of the 
retrenchments which had been ordered by the Direc- 
tors affected the interests of the military service; and a 
storm arose, such as even Caesar would not willingly 
have faced. It was no light thing to encounter the re- 
sistance of those who held the power of the sword, in a 
country governed only by the sword. Two hundred 
English officers engaged in a conspiracy against the 
government, and determined to resign their commis- 
sions on the same day, not doubting that Clive would 
grant any terms rather than see the army, on which 
alone the British empire in the East rested, left with- 
out commanders. They little knew the unconquerable 
spirit with which they had to deal. Clive had still a 
few officers round his person on whom he could rely. 
He sent to Fort St. George for a fresh supply. He gave 
commissions even to mercantile agents who were dis- 
posed to support him at this crisis; and he sent orders 
that every officer who resigned should be instantly 
brought up to Calcutta. The conspirators found that 
they had miscalculated. The governor was inexorable. 
The troops were steady. The sepoys, over whom Clive 
had always possessed extraordinary influence, stood by 
him with unshaken fidelity. The leaders in the plot 
were arrested, tried, and cashiered.^ The rest, humbled 
and dispirited, begged to be permitted to withdraw 



LORD CLIVE 115 

their resignations. Many of them declared their re- 
pentance even with tears. The younger offenders Clive 
treated with lenity. To the ringleaders he was inflex- 
ibly severe; but his severity was pure from all taint of 
private malevolence. While he sternly upheld the just 
authority of his office, he passed by personal insults 
and injuries with magnanimous disdain. One of the 
conspirators ^ was accused of having planned the as- 
sassination of the governor; but Clive would not listen 
to the charge. '^The officers/' he said, ''are English- 
men, not assassins." 

While he reformed the civil service and established 
his authority over the army, he was equally successful 
in his foreign policy. His landing on Indian ground 
was the signal for immediate peace. The Nabob of 
Oude, with a large army, lay at that time on the fron- 
tier of Bahar. He had been joined by many Afghans 
and Mahrattas, and there was no small reason to ex- 
pect a general coalition of all the native powers against 
the English. But the name of Clive quelled in an in- 
stant all opposition. The enemy implored peace in 
the humblest language, and submitted to such terms 
as the new governor chose to dictate. 

At the same time, the government of Bengal was 
placed on a new footing. The power of the English in 
that province had hitherto been altogether undefined. 
It was unknown to the ancient constitution of the em- 
pire, and it had been ascertained by no compact. It 
resembled the power which, in the last decrepitude of 
the Western Empire, was exercised over Italy by the 



116 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

great chiefs of foreign mercenaries, the Ricimers and 
the Odoacers/ who put up and pulled down at their 
pleasure a succession of insignificant princes, dignified 
with the names of Caesar and Augustus. But as in 
Italy, so in India, the warlike strangers at length found 
it expedient to give to a domination which had been 
established by arms the sanction of law and ancient 
prescription. Theodoric ^ thought it politic to obtain 
from the distant court of Byzantium a commission 
appointing him ruler of Italy; and Clive, in the same 
manner, applied to the Court of Delhi for a formal 
grant of the powers of which he already possessed 
the reality. The Mogul was absolutely helpless; and, 
though he murmured, had reason to be well pleased 
that the English were disposed to give solid rupees, 
which he never could have extorted from them, in ex- 
change for a few Persian characters which cost him 
nothing. A bargain was speedily struck; and the titu- 
lar sovereign of Hindostan issued a warrant, empower- 
ing the Company to collect and administer the revenues 
of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. 

There was still a Nabob, who stood to the British 
authorities in the same relation in which the last drivel- 
ling Chilperics ^ and Childerics of the Merovingian line 
stood to their able and vigorous Mayors of the Palace, 
to Charles Martel and to Pepin. At one time Clive had 
almost made up his mind to discard this phantom al- 
together: but he afterwards thought that it might be 
convenient still to use the name of the Nabob, particu- 
larly in dealings with other European nations. The 



LORD CLIVE 117 

French, the Dutch, and the Danes, would, he con- 
ceived, submit far more readily to the authority of the 
native Prince, whom they had always been accustomed 
to respect, than to that of a rival trading corporation. 
This policy may, at that time, have been judicious. 
But the pretence was soon found to be too flimsy to 
impose on anybody; and it was altogether laid aside. 
The heir of Meer Jaffier still resides at Mooreshedabad, 
the ancient capital of his house, still bears the title of 
Nabob, is still accosted by the English as " Your High- 
ness,'^ and is still suffered to retain a portion of the 
regal state which surrounded his ancestors. A pen- 
sion of a hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year is 
annually paid to him by the government. His carriage 
is surrounded by guards, and preceded by attendants 
with silver maces. His person and his dwelling are 
exempted from the ordinary authority of the ministers 
of justice. But he has not the smallest share of politi- 
cal power, and is, in fact, only a noble and wealthy sub- 
ject of the Company. 

It would have been easy for Clive, during his second 
administration in Bengal, to accumulate riches such 
as no subject in Europe possessed. He might, indeed, 
without subjecting the rich inhabitants of the province 
to any pressure beyond that to which their mildest 
rulers had accustomed them, have received presents to 
the amount of three hundred thousand pounds a year. 
The neighboring princes would gladly have paid any 
price for his favor. But he appears to have strictly 
adhered to the rules which he had laid down for the 



118 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

guidance of others. The Rajah of Benares offered him 
diamonds of great value. The Nabob of Oude pressed 
him to accept a large sum of money, and a casket of 
costly jewels. Clive courteously but peremptorily re- 
fused : and it should be observed that he made no merit 
of his refusal, and that the facts did not come to light 
till after his death. He kept an exact account of his 
salary, of his share of the profits accruing from the 
trade in salt, and of those presents which, according 
to the fashion of the East, it would be churlish to re- 
fuse. Out of the sum arising from these resources he 
defrayed the expenses of his situation. The surplus he 
divided among a few attached friends who had ac- 
companied him to India. He always boasted, and, as 
far as we can judge, he boasted with truth, that his 
last administration diminished instead of increasing 
his fortune. 

One large sum indeed he accepted. Meer Jaffier 
had left him by will above sixty thousand pounds ster- 
ling in specie and jewels: and the rules which had been 
recently laid down extended only to presents from the 
living, and did not affect legacies from the dead. Clive 
took the money, but not for himself. He made the 
whole over to the Company, in trust for officers and 
soldiers invalided in their service. The fund which 
still bears his name, owes its origin to this princely do- 
nation. 

After a stay of eighteen months, the state of his 
health made it necessary for him to return to Europe. 
At the close of January, 1767, he quitted for the last 



LORD CLIVE 119 

time the country on whose destinies he had exercised 
so mighty an influence. 

His second return from Bengal was not, like his 
first, greeted by the acclamations of his countrymen. 
Numerous causes were already at work which embit- 
tered the remaining years of his life, and hurried him 
to an untimely grave. His old enemies at the India 
House were still powerful and active; and they had 
been reinforced by a large band of .allies, whose vio- 
lence far exceeded their own. The whole crew of pil- 
ferers and oppressors from whom he had rescued Ben- 
gal persecuted him with the implacable rancor which 
belongs to such abject natures. Many of them even 
invested their property in India stock, merely that 
they might be better able to annoy the man whose firm- 
ness had set bounds to their rapacity. Lying newspa- 
pers were set up for no purpose but to abuse him; and 
the temper of the public mind was then such, that these 
arts, which, under ordinary circumstances would have 
been ineffectual against truth and merit, produced an 
extraordinary impression. 

The great events which had taken place in India had 
called into existence a new class of Englishmen, to 
whom their countrymen gave the name of Nabobs. 
These persons had generally sprung from families 
neither ancient nor opulent; they had generally been 
sent at an early age to the East; and they had there 
acquired large fortunes, which they had brought back 
to their native land. It was natural that, not having 
had much opportunity of mixing with the best society, 



120 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

they should exhibit some of the awkwardness and some 
of the pomposity of upstarts. It was natural that, 
during their sojourn in Asia, they should have acquired 
some tastes and habits surprising, if not disgusting, to 
persons who had never quitted Europe. It was natural 
that, having enjoyed great consideration in the East, 
they should not be disposed to sink into obscurity at 
home; and as they had money, and had not birth or 
high connection, it was natural that they should dis- 
play a little obtrusively the single advantage which 
they possessed. Wherever they settled there was a 
kind of feud between them and the old nobility and 
gentry, similar to that which raged in France between 
the farmer-general ^ and the marquess. This enmity 
to the aristocracy long continued to distinguish the 
servants of the Company. More than twenty years 
after the time of which we are now speaking, Burke 
pronounced that among the Jacobins might be reckoned 
^Hhe East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear 
to find that their present importance does not bear a 
proportion to their wealth." 

The Nabobs soon became a most unpopular class of 
men. Some of them had in the East displayed eminent 
talents, and rendered great services to the state; but 
at home their talents were not shown to advantage, and 
their services were little known. That they had sprung 
from obscurity, that they had acquired great wealth, 
that they exhibited it insolently, that they spent it 
extravagantly, that they raised the price of everything 
in their neighborhood, from fresh eggs to rotten bor- 



LORD CLIVE 121 

oughs, that their liveries outshone those of dukes, that 
their coaches were finer than that of the Lord Mayor, 
that the examples of their large and ill-governed house- 
holds corrupted half the servants in the country, that 
some of them, with all their magnificence, could not 
catch the tone of good society, but, in spite of the stud 
and the crowd of menials, of the plate and the Dresden 
china, of the venison and the Burgundy, were still low 
men ; these were things which excited, both in the class 
from which they had sprung and in the class into which 
they attempted to force themselves, the bitter aver- 
sion which is the effect of mingled envy and contempt. 
But when it was also rumored that the fortune which 
enabled its possessor to eclipse the Lord Lieutenant on 
the race-ground, or to carry the county against the 
head of a house as old as Domesday Book,^ had been 
accumulated by violating public faith, by deposing 
legitimate princes, by reducing whole provinces to 
beggary, all the higher and better as well as all the low 
and evil parts of human nature were stirred against the 
wretch who had obtained by guilt and dishonor the 
riches which he now^ lavished with arrogant and in- 
elegant profusion. The unfortunate Nabob seemed to 
be made up of those foibles against which comedy has 
pointed the most merciless ridicule, and of those crimes 
which have thrown the deepest gloom over tragedy, of 
Turcaret ^ and Nero, of Monsieur Jourdain ^ and Rich- 
ard the Third. A tempest of execration and derision, 
such as can be compared only to that outbreak of pub- 
lic feeling against the Puritans which took place at the 



122 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

time of the Restoration, burst on the servants of the 
Company. The humane man was horror-struck at the 
way in which they had got their money, the thrifty 
man at the way in which they spent it. The dilettante ^ 
sneered at their want of taste. The maccaroni ^ black- 
balled them as vulgar fellows. Writers the most un- 
like in sentiment and style, Methodists and libertines, 
philosophers and buffoons, were for once on the same 
side. It is hardly too much to say that, during a space 
of about thirty years, the whole lighter literature of 
England was colored by the feelings which we have 
described. Foote ^ brought on the stage an Anglo- 
Indian chief, dissolute, ungenerous, and tyrannical, 
ashamed of the humble friends of his youth, hating the 
aristocracy, yet childishly eager to be numbered among 
them, squandering his wealth on pandars and flatterers, 
tricking out his chairmen ^ with the most costly hot- 
house flowers, and astounding the ignorant with jargon 
about rupees, lacs, and jaghires.^ Mackenzie,^ with 
more delicate humor, depicted a plain country family 
raised by the Indian acquisitions of one of its members 
to sudden opulence, and exciting derision by an awk- 
ward mimicry of the manners of the great. Cowper ^ 
in that lofty expostulation which glows with the very 
spirit of the Hebrew poets, placed the oppression of 
India foremost in the list of those national crimes for 
which God had punished England with years of dis- 
astrous war, with discomfiture in her own seas, and 
with the loss of her transatlantic empire. If any of 
our readers will take the trouble to search in the dusty 



LORD CLIVE 123 

recesses of circulating libraries for some novel pub- 
lished sixty years ago, the chance is that the villain or 
sub-villain of the story will prove to be a savage old 
Nabob, with an immense fortune, a tawny complexion, 
a bad liver, and a worse heart. 

Such, as far as we can now judge, was the feeling 
of the country respecting Nabobs in general. And 
Clive was eminently the Nabob, the ablest, the most 
celebrated, the highest in rank, the highest in fortune, 
of all the fraternity. His wealth was exhibited in 
a manner which could not fail to excite odium. He 
lived with great magnificence in Berkeley Square. 
He reared one palace in Shropshire and another at 
Claremont. His parliamentary influence might vie 
with that of the greatest families. But in all this 
splendor and power envy found something to sneer 
at. On some of his relations wealth and dignity seem 
to have sat as awkwardly as on Mackenzie's Margery 
Mushroom. Nor was he himself, with all his great 
qualities, free from those weaknesses which the satir- 
ists of that age represented as characteristic of his 
whole class. In the field, indeed, his habits were re- 
markably simple. He was constantly on horseback, 
was never seen but in his uniform, never wore silk, 
never entered a palanquin, and was content with the 
plainest fare. But when he was no longer at the 
head of an army, he laid aside his Spartan temper- 
ance ^ for the ostentatious luxury of a Sybarite. 
Though his person was ungraceful, and though his 



124 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

harsh features were redeemed from vulgar ugliness 
only by their stern, dauntless, and commanding ex- 
pression, he was fond of rich and gay clothing, and 
replenished his wardrobe with absurd profusion. Sir 
John Malcolm gives us a letter worthy of Sir Matthew 
Mite,^ in which Clive orders 'Hwo hundred shirts, the 
best and finest that can be got for love or money. " A 
few follies of this description, grossly exaggerated by 
report, produced an unfavorable impression on the pub- 
lic mind. But this was not the worst. Black stories, 
of which the greater part were pure inventions, were 
circulated respecting his conduct in the East. He had 
to bear the whole odium, not only of those bad acts 
to which he had once or twice stooped, but of all 
the bad acts of all the English in India, of bad acts 
committed when he was absent, nay, of bad acts which 
he had manfully opposed and severely punished. The 
very abuses against which he had waged an honest, 
resolute, and successful war, were laid to his account. 
He was, in fact, regarded as the personification of all 
the vices and weaknesses which the public, with or 
without reason, ascribed to the English adventurers in 
Asia. We have ourselves heard old men, who knew 
nothing of his history, but who still retained the prej- 
udices conceived in their youth, talk of him as an 
incarnate fiend. Johnson always held this language. 
Brown, whom Clive employed to lay out his pleasure 
grounds, was amazed to see in the house of his noble 
employer a chest which had once been filled with gold 
from the treasury of Moorshedabad, and could not un- 



LORD CLIVE 125 

derstand how the conscience of the criminal could suffer 
him to sleep with such an object so near to his bed- 
chamber. The peasantry of Surrey looked with mys- 
terious horror on the stately house which was rising at 
Claremont, and whispered that the great wicked lord 
had ordered the walls to be made so thick in order to 
keep out the devil, who would one day carry him away 
bodily. Among the gaping clowns who drank in this 
frightful story was a worthless ugly lad of the name 
of Hunt, since widely known as William Hunting- 
ton, S. S.;^ and the superstition which was strangely 
mingled with the knavery of that remarkable impostor 
seems to have derived no small nutriment from the 
tales which he heard of the life and character of Clive. 
In the meantime, the impulse which Clive had given 
to the administration of Bengal was constantly be- 
coming fainter and fainter. His policy was to a 
great extent abandoned; the abuses which he had 
suppressed began to revive; and at length the evils 
which a bad government had engendered were aggra- 
vated by one of those fearful visitations which the 
best government cannot avert. In the summer of 
1770, the rains failed; the earth was parched up; the 
tanks were empty; the rivers shrank within their 
beds ; and a famine, such as is known only in countries 
where every household depends for support on its own 
little patch of cultivation, filled the whole valley of 
the Ganges with misery and death. Tender and del- 
icate women, whose veils had never been lifted before 
the public gaze, came forth from the inner chambers 



126 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

in which Eastern jealousy had kept watch over their 
beauty, threw themselves on the earth before the 
passers-by and, with loud wailings, implored a hand- 
ful of rice for their children. The Hoogley every day 
rolled down thousands of corpses close to the porticos 
and gardens of the English conquerors. The very 
streets of Calcutta were blocked up by the dying and 
the dead. The lean and feeble survivors had not en- 
ergy enough to bear the bodies of their kindred to the 
funeral pile or the holy river, or even to scare away 
the jackals and vultures, that fed on human remains 
in the face of day. The extent of the mortality was 
never ascertained; but it was popularly reckoned by 
millions. This melancholy intelligence added to the 
excitement which already prevailed in England on 
Indian subjects. The proprietors of East India stock 
were uneasy about their dividends. All men of com- 
mon humanity were touched by the calamities of our 
unhappy subjects; and indignation soon began to min- 
gle itself with pity. It was rumored that the Com- 
pany's servants had created the famine by engross- 
ing all the rice of the country; that they had sold 
grain for eight, ten, twelve times the price at which 
they had bought it; that one English functionary who, 
the year before, was not worth a hundred guineas, 
had, during that season of misery, remitted sixty 
thousand pounds to London. These charges we be- 
lieve to have been unfounded. That servants of the 
Company had ventured, since Clive's departure, to 
deal in rice, is probable. That, if they dealt in rice, 



LORD CLIVE 127 

they must have gained by the scarcity, is certain. 
But there is no reason for thinking that they either 
produced or aggravated an evil which physical causes 
sufficiently explain. The outcry which was raised 
against them on this occasion was, we suspect, as 
absurd as the imputations which, in times of dearth 
at home, were once thrown by statesmen and judges, 
and are still thrown by two or three old women, on 
the corn-factors. It was, however, so loud and so 
general that it appears to have imposed even on an 
intellect raised so high above vulgar prejudices as 
that of Adam Smith. ^ What was still more extraor- 
dinary, these unhappy events greatly increased the un- 
popularity of Lord Clive. He had been some years 
in England when the famine took place. None of his 
acts had the smallest tendency to produce such a 
calamity. If the servants of the Company had traded 
in rice, they had done so in direct contravention of 
the rule which he had laid down, and, while in power, 
had resolutely enforced. But, in the eyes of his coun- 
trymen, he was, as we have said, the Nabob, the 
Anglo-Indian character personified; and, while he was 
building and planting in Surrey, he was held respon- 
sible for all the effects of a dry season in Bengal. 

Parliament had hitherto bestowed very little atten- 
tion on our Eastern possessions. Since the death of 
George the Second, a rapid succession of weak ad- 
ministrations, each of which was in turn flattered and 
betrayed by the Court, had held the semblance of 
power. Intrigues in the palace, riots in tlie capital, 



128 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

and insurrectionary movements in the American col- 
onies, had left the advisers of the crown Httle leisure 
to study Indian politics. When they did interfere, 
their interference was feeble and irresolute. Lord 
Chatham indeed, during the short period of his ascen- 
dency in the councils of George the Third, had medi- 
tated a bold attack on the Company. But his plans 
were rendered abortive by the strange malady ^ which 
about that time began to overcloud his splendid genius. 

At length, in 1772, it was generally felt that Parlia- 
ment could no longer neglect the affairs of India. The 
Government was stronger than any which had held 
power since the breach between Mr. Pitt and the great 
Whig connection in 1761. No pressing question of 
domestic or European policy required the attention 
of public men. There was a short and delusive lull 
between two tempests. The excitement produced by 
the Middlesex election ^ was over; the discontents of 
America did not yet threaten civil war; the financial 
difficulties of the Company brought on a crisis; the 
Ministers were forced to take up the subject; and the 
whole storm, which had long been gathering, now 
broke at once on the head of Clive. 

His situation was indeed singularly unfortunate. 
He was hated throughout the country, hated at the 
India House, hated, above all, by those wealthy and 
powerful servants of the Company, whose rapacity 
and tyranny he had withstood. He had to bear the 
double odium of his bad and of his good actions, of ev- 
ery Indian abuse and of every Indian reform. The 



LORD CLIVE 129 

state of the political world was such that he could 
count on the support of no powerful connection. The 
party to which he had belonged, that of George Gren- 
ville, had been hostile to the Government, and yet 
had never cordially united with the other sections of 
the Opposition, with the little band which still fol- 
lowed the fortunes of Lord Chatham, or with the large 
and respectable body of which Lord Rockingham was 
the acknowledged leader. George Grenville was now 
dead; his followers were scattered; and Clive, uncon- 
nected with any of the powerful factions which di- 
vided the Parliament, could reckon only on the votes 
of those members who were returned by himself. His 
enemies, particularly those who were the enemies of 
his virtues, were unscrupulous, ferocious, implacable. 
Their malevolence aimed at nothing less than the utter 
ruin of his fame and fortune. They wished to see him 
expelled from Parliament, to see his spurs chopped off,^ 
to see his estate confiscated; and it may be doubted 
whether even such a result as this would have quenched 
their thirst for revenge. 

dive's parliamentary tactics resembled his military 
tactics. Deserted, surrounded, outnumbered, and with 
everything at stake, he did not even deign to stand on 
the defensive, but pushed boldly forward to the attack. 
At an early stage of the discussions on Indian affairs 
he rose, and in a long and elaborate speech vindicated 
himself from a large part of the accusations which had 
been brought against him. He is said to have produced 
a great impression on his audience. Lord Chatham, 



130 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

who, now the ghost of his former self, loved to haunt the 
scene of his glory, was that night under the gallery of the 
House of Commons, and declared that he had never 
heard a finer speech. It was subsequently printed un- 
der Olive's direction, and, when the fullest allowance has 
been made for the assistance which he may have ob- 
tained from literary friends, proves him to have pos- 
sessed, not merely strong sense and manly spirit, but 
talents both for disquisition and declamation which 
assiduous culture might have improved into the highest 
excellence. He confined his defence on this occasion to 
the measures of his last administration, and succeeded so 
far that his enemies thenceforth thought it expedient to 
direct their attacks chiefly against the earlier part of his 
life. 

The earlier part of his life unfortunately presented 
some assailable points to their hostility. A committee 
was chosen by ballot to inquire into the affairs of India; 
and by this committee the whole history of that great 
revolution which threw down Surajah Dowlah and 
raised Meer Jafher was sifted with malignant care. Clive 
was subjected to the most unsparing examination and 
cross-examination, and afterwards bitterly complained 
that he, the Baron of Plassey, had been treated like a 
sheep-stealer. The boldness and ingenuousness of his 
replies would alone suffice to show how alien from his 
nature were the frauds to which, in the course of his 
Eastern negotiations, he had sometimes descended. He 
avowed the arts which he had employed to deceive 
Omichund, and resolutely said that he was not ashamed 



LORD CLIVE 131 

of them, and that, in the same circumstances, he would 
again act in the same manner. He admitted that he had 
received immense sums from Meer Jaffier; but he denied 
that, in doing so, he had violated any obligation of 
morality or honor. He laid claim, on the contrary, and 
not without some reason, to the praise of eminent dis- 
interestedness . He described in vivid language the situa- 
tion in which his victory had placed him; a great prince 
dependent on his pleasure; an opulent city afraid of 
being given up to plunder; wealthy bankers bidding 
against each other for his smiles; vaults piled with gold 
and jewels thrown open to him alone. '^By God, Mr. 
Chairman," he exclaimed, "at this moment I stand 
astonished at my own moderation." 

The inquiry was so extensive that the Houses rose ^ 
before it had been completed. It was continued in the 
following session. When at length the committee had 
concluded its labors, enlightened and impartial men had 
little difficulty in making up their minds as to the re- 
sult. It was clear that Clive had been guilty of some 
acts which it is impossible to vindicate without attack- 
ing the authority of all the most sacred laws which regu- 
late the intercourse of individuals and of states. But it 
was equally clear that he had displayed great talents, 
and even great virtues; that he had rendered eminent 
services both to his country and to the people of India; 
and that it was in truth not for his dealings with Meer 
Jaffier, nor for the fraud which he had practised on Omi- 
chund, but for his determined resistance to avarice and 
tyranny, that he was now called in question. 



132 MA CA ULA Y'S ESS A Y 

Ordinary criminal justice knows nothing of set-off. 
The greatest desert cannot be pleaded in answer to a 
charge of the slightest transgression. If a man has sold 
beer on Sunday morning, it is no defence that he has 
saved the life of a fellow-creature at the risk of his own. 
If he has harnessed a Newfoundland dog to his little 
child's carriage, it is no defence that he was wounded at 
Waterloo. But it is not in this way that we ought to 
deal with men who, raised far above ordinary restraints, 
and tried by far more than ordinary temptations, are 
entitled to a more than ordinary measure of indulgence. 
Such men should be judged by their contemporaries as 
they will be judged by posterity. Their bad actions 
ought not, indeed, to be called good : but their good and 
bad actions ought to be fairly weighed; and if on the 
whole the good preponderate, the sentence ought to be 
one, not merely of acquittal, but of approbation. Not a 
single great ruler in history can be absolved by a judge 
who fixes his eye inexorably on one or two unjustifiable 
acts. Bruce ^ the deliverer of Scotland, Maurice the de- 
liverer of Germany, William the deliverer of Holland, 
his great descendant the deliverer of England, Murray 
the good regent, Cosmo the father of his country, Henry 
the Fourth of France, Peter the Great of Russia, how 
would the best of them pass such a scrutiny? History 
takes wider views ; and the best tribunal for great politi- 
cal cases is the tribunal which anticipates the verdict of 
history. 

Reasonable and moderate men of all parties felt this 
in dive's case. They could not pronounce him blame- 



LORD CLIVE 133 

less; but they were not disposed to abandon him to that 
low-minded and rancorous pack who had run him down 
and were eager to worry him to death. Lord North, 
though not very friendly to him, was not disposed to go 
to extremities against him. While the inquiry was still 
in progress, Clive, who had some years before been cre- 
ated a Knight of the Bath, was installed with great pomp 
in Henry the Seventh's Chapel.^ He was soon after ap- 
pointed Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire. When he kissed 
hands, George the Third, who had always been par- 
tial to him, admitted him to a private audience, talked 
to him half an hour on Indian politics, and was visibly 
affected when the persecuted general spoke of his serv- 
ices and of the way in which they had been requited. 

At length the charges came in a definite form before 
the House of Commons. Burgoyne,^ chairman of the 
committee, a man of wit, fashion, and honor, an agree- 
able dramatic writer, an officer whose courage was never 
questioned, and whose skill was at that time highly 
esteemed, appeared as the accuser. The members of the 
administration took different sides; for in that age all 
questions were open questions, except such as were 
brought forward by the Government, or such as implied 
some censure on the Government. Thurlow, the At- 
torney General, was among the assailants. Wedder- 
burne, the Solicitor General, strongly attached to Clive, 
defended his friend with extraordinary force of argu- 
ment and language. It is a curious circumstance that, 
some years later, Thurlow was the most conspicuous 
champion of Warren Hastings, while Wedderburne was 



134 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

among the most unrelenting persecutors of that great 
though not faultless statesman. Clive spoke in his own 
defence, at less length and with less art than in the pre- 
ceding year, but with much energy and pathos. He re- 
counted his great actions and his wrongs: and, after 
bidding his hearers remember that they were about to 
decide not only on his honor but their own, he retired 
from the House. 

The Commons resolved that acquisitions made by 
the arms of the State belong to the State alone, and 
that it is illegal in the servants of the State to appropri- 
ate such acquisitions to themselves. They resolved that 
this wholesome rule appeared to have been systematic- 
ally violated by the English functionaries in Bengal. 
On a subsequent day they went a step farther, and re- 
solved that Clive had, by means of the power which he 
possessed as commander of the British forces in India, 
obtained large sums from Meer Jaffier. Here the Com- 
mons stopped. They had voted the major and minor of 
Burgoyne's syllogism; but they shrank from drawing 
the logical conclusion. When it was moved that Lord 
Clive had abused his powers, and set an evil example to 
the servants of the public, the previous question ^ was 
put and carried. At length, long after the sun had risen 
on an animated debate, Wedderburne moved that Lord 
Clive had at the same time rendered great and meritori- 
ous services to his country; and this motion passed with- 
out a division. 

The result of this memorable inquiry appears to us, 
on the whole, honorable to the justice, moderation, and 



LORD CLIVE 135 

discernment of the Commons. They had, indeed, no 
great temptation to do wrong. They would have been 
very bad judges of an accusation brought against Jenk- 
inson or against Wilkes. But the question respecting 
Clive was not a party question; and the House accord- 
ingly acted with the good sense and good feeling which 
may always be expected from an assembly of English 
gentlemen, not blinded by faction. 

The equitable and temperate proceedings of the Brit- 
ish Parliament were set off to the greatest advantage 
by a foil. The wretched government of Louis the Fif- 
teenth had murdered, directly or indirectly, almost every 
Frenchman who had served his country with distinction 
in the East. Labourdonnais was flung into the Bastile, 
and, after years of suffering, left it only to die. Dupleix, 
stripped of his immense fortune, and broken-hearted by 
humiliating attendance in antechambers, sank into an 
obscure grave. Lally was dragged to the common place 
of execution with a gag between his lips. The Commons 
of England, on the other hand, treated their living cap- 
tain with that discriminating justice which is seldom 
shown except to the dead. They laid down sound gen- 
eral principles; they delicately pointed out where he had 
deviated from those principles; and, they tempered the 
gentle censure with liberal eulogy. The contrast struck 
Voltaire, always partial to England, and always eager 
to expose the abuses of the Parliaments of France. In- 
deed he seems, at this time, to have meditated a history 
of the conquest of Bengal. He mentioned his design to 
Dr. Moore when that amusing writer visited him at 



136 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

Ferney. Wedderburne took great interest in the matter, 
and pressed Clive to furnish materials. Had the plan 
been carried into execution, we have no doubt that Vol- 
taire would have produced a book containing much 
lively and picturesque narrative, many just and hu- 
mane sentiments poignantly expressed, many grotesque 
blunders, many sneers at the Mosaic chronology, much 
scandal about the Catholic missionaries, and much sub- 
lime theophilanthropy, stolen from the New Testament, 
and put into the mouths of virtuous and philosophical 
Brahmins. 

Clive was now secure in the enjoyment of his for- 
tune and his honors. He was surrounded by attached 
friends and relations; and he had not yet passed the 
season of vigorous bodily and mental exertion. But 
clouds had long been gathering over his mind, and 
now settled on it in thick darkness. From early 
youth he had been subject to fits of that strange mel- 
ancholy "which rejoiceth exceedingly^ and is glad 
when it can find the grave. " While still a writer at 
Madras, he had twice attempted to destroy himself. 
Business and prosperity had produced a salutary effect 
on his spirits. In India, while he was occupied by 
great affairs, in England, while wealth and rank had 
still the charm of novelty, he had borne up against 
his constitutional misery; but he had now nothing to 
do, and nothing to wish for. His active spirit in an 
inactive situation drooped and withered like a plant 
in an uncongenial air. The malignity with which his 
enemies had pursued him, the indignity with which 



LORD CLIVE 137 

he had been treated by the committee, the censure, 
lenient as it was, which the House of Commons had 
pronounced, the knowledge that he was regarded by 
a large portion of his countrymen as a cruel and per- 
fidious tyrant, all concurred to irritate and depress 
him. In the meantime his temper was tried by acute 
physical suffering. During his long residence in trop- 
ical climates, he had contracted several painful dis- 
tempers. In order to obtain ease he called in the help 
of opium ; and he was gradually enslaved by this treach- 
erous ally. To the last, however, his genius occasion- 
ally flashed through the gloom. It was said that he 
would sometimes, after sitting silent and torpid for 
hours, rouse himself to the discussion of some great 
question, would display in full vigor all the talents of 
the soldier and statesman, and would then sink back 
into his melancholy repose. 

The disputes with America had now become so 
serious that an appeal to the sword seemed inevitable; 
and the Ministers were desirous to avail themselves 
of the services of Clive. Had he still been what he was 
when he raised the siege of Patna, and annihilated the 
Dutch army and navy at the mouth of the Ganges, it is 
not improbable that the resistance of the Colonists 
would have been put down, and that the inevitable 
separation would have been deferred for a few years. 
But it was too late. His strong mind was fast sinking 
under many kinds of suffering. On the twenty-second 
of November, 1774, he died by his own hand. He had 
just completed his forty-ninth year. 



138 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

In the awful close of so much prosperity and glory, 
the vulgar saw only a confirmation of all their preju- 
dices; and some men of real piety and genius so far 
forgot the maxims both of religion and of philosophy 
as confidently to ascribe the mournful event to the 
just vengeance of God, and to the horrors of an evil 
conscience. It is with very different feelings that we 
contemplate the spectacle of a great mind ruined by 
the weariness of satiety, by the pangs of wounded 
honor, by fatal diseases, and more fatal remedies. 

Clive committed great faults; and we have not at- 
tempted to disguise them. But his faults, when 
weighed against his merits, and viewed in connection 
with his temptations, do not appear to us to deprive 
him of his right to an honorable place in the estima- 
tion of posterity. 

From his first visit to India dates the renown of 
the English arms in the East. Till he appeared, his 
countrymen were despised as mere pedlers, while the 
French were revered as people formed for victoiy and 
command. His courage and capacity dissolved the 
charm. With the defence of Arcot commences that 
long series of Oriental triumphs which closes with the 
fall of Ghizni.^ Nor must we forget that he was only 
twenty-five years old when he approved himself ripe 
for military command. This is a rare if not a singular 
distinction. It is true that Alexander, Conde, and 
Charles the Twelfth ^ won great battles at a still earlier 
age; but those princes were surrounded by veteran 
generals of distinguished skill, to whose suggestions 



LORD CLIVE 139 

must be attributed the victories of the Granicus, of 
Rocroi, and of Narva. Clive, an inexperienced youth, 
had yet more experience than any of those who served 
under him. He had to form himself, to form his offi- 
cers, and to form his army. The only man, as far as we 
recollect, who at an equally early age ever gave equal 
proof of talents for war, was Napoleon Bonaparte. 

From Olive's second visit to India dates the political 
ascendency of the English in that country. His dex- 
terity and resolution realized, in the course of a few 
months, more than all the gorgeous visions which had 
floated before the imagination of Dupleix. Such an 
extent of cultivated territory, such an amount of reve- 
nue, such a multitude of subjects, was never added to 
the dominion of Rome by the most successful pro- 
consul. Nor were such wealthy spoils ever borne un- 
der arches of triumph, down the Sacred Way,i and 
through the crowded Forum, to the threshold of Tar- 
peian Jove. The fame of those who subdued Antio- 
chus and Tigranes ^ grows dim when compared with 
the splendor of the exploits which the young English 
adventurer achieved at the head of an army not equal 
in numbers to one-half of a Roman legion. 

From Clive's third visit to India dates the purity of 
the administration of our Eastern empire. When he 
landed in Calcutta in 1765, Bengal was regarded as a 
place to which Englishmen were sent only to get rich, 
by any means, in the shortest possible time. He first 
made dauntless and unsparing war on that gigantic 
system of oppression, extortion, and corruption. In 



140 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

that war he manfully put to hazard his ease, his fame, 
and his splendid fortune. The same sense of justice 
which forbids us to conceal or extenuate the faults of 
his earlier days compels us to admit that those faults 
were nobly repaired. If the reproach of the Company 
and of its servants has been taken away, if in India 
the yoke of foreign masters, elsewhere the heaviest of 
all yokes, has been found lighter than that of any na- 
tive dynasty, if to that gang of public robbers, which 
formerly spread terror through the whole plain of 
Bengal, has succeeded a body of functionaries not more 
highly distinguished by ability and diligence than by 
integrity, disinterestedness, and public spirit, if we now 
see such men as Munroe, Elphinstone, and Metcalfe,^ 
after leading victorious armies, after making and de- 
posing kings, return, proud of their honorable poverty, 
from a land which once held out to every greedy factor 
the hope of boundless wealth, the praise is in no small 
measure due to Clive. His name stands high on the roll 
of conquerors. But it is found in a better list, in the 
list of those who have done and suffered much for the 
happiness of mankind. To the warrior, history will as- 
sign a place in the same rank with Lucullus and Trajan.^ 
Nor will she deny to the reformer a share of that ven- 
eration with which France cherishes the memory of 
Turgot,^ and with which the latest generations of Hin- 
doos will contemplate the statue of Lord William 
Bentinck.^ 



WARREN HASTINGS 



WARREN HASTINGS 

We are inclined to think that we shall best meet the 
wishes of our readers, if, instead of minutely examin- 
ing this book/ we attempt to give, in a way necessarily 
hasty and imperfect, our own view of the life and char- 
acter of Mr. Hastings. Our feeling towards him is not 
exactly that of the House of Commons which impeached 
him in 1787; neither is it that of the House of Commons 
which uncovered ^ and stood up to receive him in 1813. 
He had great qualities, and he rendered great services 
to the state. But to represent him as a man of stain- 
less virtue is to make him ridiculous ; and from a regard 
for his memory, if from no other feeling, his friends 
would have done well to lend no countenance to such 
adulation. We believe that, if he were now living, he 
would have sufficient judgment and sufficient greatness 
of mind to wish to be shown as he was. He must have 
known that there were dark spots on his fame. He 
might also have felt with pride that the splendor of his 
fame would bear many spots. He would have wished 
posterity to have a likeness of him, though an unfavor- 
able likeness, rather than a daub at once insipid and 
unnatural, resembling neither him nor anybody else. 
" Paint me as I am," said Oliver Cromwell, while sitting 
to young Lely. " If you leave out the scars and wrinkles, 

143 



144 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

I will not pay you a shilling." Even in such a trifle, 
the great Protector showed both his good sense and his 
magnanimity. He did not wish all that was characteris- 
tic in his countenance to be lost, in the vain attempt to 
give him the regular features and smooth blooming 
cheeks of the curl-pated minions of James the First. He 
was content that his face should go forth marked with 
all the blemishes which had been put on it by time, by 
war, by sleepless nights, by anxiety, perhaps by remorse; 
but with valor, policy, authority, and public care written 
in all its princely lines. If men truly great knew their 
own interest, it is thus that they would wish their minds 
to be portrayed. 

Warren Hastings sprang from an ancient and illus- 
trious race. It has been affirmed that his pedigree can 
be traced back to the great Danish sea-king,^ whose sails 
were long the terror of both coasts of the Bristol Chan- 
nel, and who, after many fierce and doubtful struggles, 
yielded at last to the valor and genius of Alfred. But 
the undoubted splendor of the line of Hastings needs 
no illustration from fable. One branch of that line wore, 
in the fourteenth century, the coronet of Pembroke. 
From another branch sprang the renowned Chamber- 
lain,^ the faithful adherent of the White Rose,^ whose 
fate has furnished so striking a theme both to poets and 
to historians. His family received from the Tudors the 
earldom of Huntingdon, which, after long dispossession, 
was regained in our time by a series of events scarcely 
paralleled in romance. 

The lords of the manor of Daylesford, in Worcester- 



WARREN HASTINGS 145 

shire, claimed to be considered as the heads of this dis- 
tinguished family. The main stock, indeed, prospered 
less than some of the younger shoots. But the Dayles- 
ford family, though not ennobled, was wealthy and 
highly considered, till, about two hundred years ago, it 
was overwhelmed by the great ruin of the civil war. The 
Hastings of that time was a zealous cavalier. He raised 
money on his lands, sent his plate to the mint at Oxford,^ 
joined the royal army, and, after spending half his prop- 
erty in the cause of King Charles, was glad to ransom 
himself by making over most of the remaining half to 
speaker Lenthal. The old seat at Daylesford still re- 
mained in the family; but it could no longer be kept up; 
and in the following generation it was sold to a merchant 
of London. 

Before this transfer took place, the last Hastings of 
Daylesford had presented his second son to the rectory 
of the parish in which the ancient residence of the 
family stood. The living ^ was of little value; and the 
situation of the poor clergyman, after the sale of the 
estate, was deplorable. He was constantly engaged in 
lawsuits about his tithes ^ with the new lord of the 
manor, and was at length utterly ruined. His eldest 
son, Howard, a well-conducted young man, obtained a 
place in the Customs. The second son, Pynaston, an 
idle worthless boy, married before he was sixteen, lost 
his wife in two years, and died in the West Indies, leav- 
ing to the care of his unfortunate father a little orphan, 
destined to strange and memorable vicissitudes of for- 
tune. 



146 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

Warren, the son of Pynaston, was born on the sixth 
of December, 1732. His mother died a few days later, 
and he was left dependent on his distressed grandfather. 
The child was early sent to the village school, where he 
learned his letters on the same bench with the sons of the 
peasantry ; nor did anything in his garb or fare indicate 
that his life was to take a widely different course from 
that of the young rustics with whom he studied and 
played. But no cloud could overcast the dawn of so 
much genius and so much ambition. The very plough- 
men-observed, and long remembered, how kindly little 
Warren took to his book. The daily sight of the lands 
which his ancestors had possessed, and which had passed 
into the hands of strangers, filled his young brain with 
wild fancies and projects. He loved to hear stories of 
the wealth and greatness of his progenitors, of* their 
splendid housekeeping, their loyalty, and their valor. 
On one bright summer day, the boy, then just seven 
years old, lay on the bank of the rivulet which flows 
through the old domain of his house to join the Isis. 
There, as threescore and ten years later he told the tale, 
rose in his mind a scheme which, through all the turns 
of his eventful career, was never abandoned. He would 
recover the estate which had belonged to his fathers. 
He would be Hastings of Daylesford. This purpose, 
formed in infancy and poverty, grew stronger as his in- 
tellect expanded and as his fortune rose. He pursued 
his plan with that calm but indomitable force of will 
which was the most striking peculiarity of his character. 
When, under a tropical sun, he ruled fifty millions of 



WARREN HASTINGS 147 

Asiatics, his hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance, 
and legislation, still pointed to Daylesford. And when 
his long public life, so singularly chequered with good and 
evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length closed for 
ever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die. 

When he was eight years old, his uncle Howard de- 
termined to take charge of him, and to give him a liberal 
education. The boy went up to London, and was sent 
to a school at Newington, where he was well taught but 
ill fed. He always attributed the smallness of his stature 
to the hard and scanty fare of this seminary. At ten he 
was removed to Westminster school,^ then flourishing 
under the care of Dr. Nichols. Vinny Bourne, as his 
pupils affectionately called him, was one of the masters. 
Churchill, Colman, Lloyd, Cumberland, Cowper,^ were 
among the students. With Cowper Hastings formed a 
friendship which neither the lapse of time, nor a wide 
dissimilarity of opinions and pursuits, could wholly dis- 
solve. It does not appear that they ever met after they 
had grown to manhood. But forty years later, when 
the voices of many great orators were crying for ven- 
geance on the oppressor of India, the shy and secluded 
poet could image to himself Hastings the Governor- 
General only as the Hastings with whom he had rowed 
on the Thames and played in the cloister, and refused to 
believe that so good-tempered a fellow could have done 
anything very wrong. His own life had been spent in 
praying, musing, and rhyming among the water-lilies of 
the Ouse. He had preserved in no common measure 
the innocence of childhood. His spirit had indeed been 



148 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

severely tried, ^ but not by temptations which impelled 
him to any gross violations of the rules of social morality. 
He had never been attacked by combinations of power- 
ful and deadly enemies. He had never been compelled 
to make a choice between innocence and greatness,^ be- 
tween crime and ruin. Firmly as he held in theory the 
doctrine of human depravity, his habits were such that 
he was unable to conceive how far from the path of right 
even kind and noble natures may be hurried by the rage 
of conflict and the lust of dominion. 

Hastings had another associate at Westminster of 
whom we shall have occasion to make frequent men- 
tion, Elijah Impey. We know little about their school 
days. But, we think, we may safely venture to guess 
that, whenever Hastings wished to play any trick more 
than usually naughty, he hired Impey with a tart or a 
ball to act as fag in the worst part of the prank. 

Warren was distinguished among his comrades as 
an excellent swimmer, boatman, and scholar. At four- 
teen he was first in the examination for the foundation. 
His name in gilded letters on the walls of the dormitory 
still attests his victory over many older competitors. 
He stayed two years longer at the school, and was look- 
ing forward to a studentship at Christ Church, when an 
event happened which changed the whole course of his 
life. Howard Hastings died, bequeathing his nephew 
to the care of a friend and distant relation, named 
Chiswick. This gentleman, though he did not abso- 
lutely refuse the charge, was desirous to rid himself of 
it as soon as possible. Dr. Nichols made strong remon- 



WARI^EN HASTINGS 149 

strances against the cruelty of interrupting the studies of 
a youth who seemed likely to be one of the first scholars 
of the age. He even offered to bear the expense of send- 
ing his favorite pupil to Oxford. But Mr. Chiswick was 
inflexible. He thought the years which had already 
been wasted on hexameters ^ and pentameters quite 
sufficient. He had it in his power to obtain for the lad a 
writership ^ in the service of the East India Company.^ 
Whether the young adventurer, when once shipped off, 
made a fortune, or died of a liver complaint, he equally 
ceased to be a burden to anybody. Warren was accord- 
ingly removed from Westminster school, and placed for 
a few months at a commercial academy, to study arith- 
metic and book-keeping. In January, 1750, a few days 
after he had completed his seventeenth year, he sailed 
for Bengal, and arrived at his destination in the October 
following. 

He was immediately placed at a desk in the Secretary's 
office at Calcutta, and labored there during two years. 
Fort William was then a purely commercial settlement. 
In the south of India the encroaching policy of Dupleix ^ 
had transformed the servants of the English company, 
against their will, into diplomatists and generals. The 
war of the succession was raging in the Carnatic; ^ and 
the tide had been suddenly turned against the French 
by the genius of young Robert Clive. But in Bengal ^ 
the European settlers, at peace with the natives and 
with each other, were wholly occupied with ledgers and 
bills of lading. 

After two years passed in keeping accounts at Cal- 



150 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

cutta, Hastings was sent up the country to Cossimbazar, 
a town which lies on the Hoogley/ about a mile from 
Moorshedabad, and which then bore to Moorshedabad 
a relation, if we may compare small things with great, 
such as the city of London bears to Westminster. Moor- 
shedabad was the abode of the prince^ who, by an au- 
thority ostensibly derived from the Mogul, ^ but really 
independent, ruled the three great provinces of Bengal, 
Orissa, and Bahar. At Moorshedabad were the court, 
the harem, and the public offices. Cossimbazar was a 
port and a place of trade, renowned for the quantity and 
excellence of the silks which were sold in its marts, and 
constantly receiving and sending forth fleets of richly 
laden barges. At this important point, the Company had 
established a small factory subordinate to that of Fort 
William. Here, during several years, Hastings was em- 
ployed in making bargains for stuffs with native brokers. 
While he was thus engaged, Surajah Dowlah succeeded 
to the government, and declared war against the Eng- 
lish. The defenceless settlement of Cossimbazar, lying 
close to the tyrant's capital, was instantly seized. Hast- 
ings was sent a prisoner to Moorshedabad, but, in conse- 
quence of the humane intervention of the servants of the 
Dutch Company, was treated with indulgence. Mean- 
while the Nabob marched on Calcutta; the governor 
and the commandant fled; the town and citadel were 
taken, and most of the English prisoners perished in the 
Black Hole.4 

In these events originated the greatness of Warren 
Hastings. The fugitive governor and his companions 



WARREN HASTINGS 151 

had taken refuge on the dreary islet of Fulda, near the 
mouth of the Hoogley. They were naturally desirous 
to obtain full information respecting the proceedings of 
the Nabob; and no person seemed so likely to furnish it 
as Hastings, who was a prisoner at large in the immediate 
neighborhood of the court. He thus became a diplo- 
matic agent, and soon established a high character for 
ability and resolution. The treason ^ which at a later 
period was fatal to Surajah Dowlah was already in prog- 
ress; and Hastings was admitted to the deliberations of 
the conspirators. But the time for striking had not 
arrived. It was necessary to postpone the execution of 
the design; and Hastings, who was now in extreme peril, 
fled to Fulda. 

Soon after his arrival at Fulda, the expedition from 
Madras, commanded by Clive,^ appeared in the Hoogley. 
Warren, young, intrepid, and excited probably by the 
example of the Commander of the Forces, who, having 
like himself been a mercantile agent of the Company, 
had been turned by public calamities into a soldier, de- 
termined to serve in the ranks. During the early opera- 
tions of the war he carried a musket. But the quick eye 
of Clive soon perceived that the head of the young volun- 
teer would be more useful than his arm. When, after 
the battle of Plassey, Meer Jaffier was proclaimed Nabob 
of Bengal, Hastings was appointed to reside at the court 
of the new prince as agent for the Company. 

He remained at Moorshedabad till the year 1761, 
when he became a member of Council, and was conse- 
quently forced to reside at Calcutta. This was during 



152 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

the interval between Olive's first and second adminis- 
tration, an interval which has left on the fame of the 
East India Company a stain, not wholly effaced by 
many years of just and humane government. Mr. 
Vansittart, the Governor, was at the head of a new 
and anomalous empire. On the one side was a band 
of English functionaries, daring, intelligent, eager to 
be rich. On the other side was a great native popu- 
lation, helpless, timid, accustomed to crouch under 
oppression. To keep the stronger race from preying 
on the weaker, was an undertaking which tasked to 
the utmost the talents and energy of Clive. Vansit- 
tart, with fair intentions, was a feeble and inefficient 
ruler. The master caste, as was natural, broke loose 
from all restraint; and then was seen what we believe 
to be the most frightful of all spectacles, the strength 
of civilization without its mercy. To all other despot- 
ism there is a check, imperfect indeed, and liable to 
gross abuse, but still sufficient to preserve society from 
the last extreme of misery. A time comes when the 
evils of submission are obviously greater than those 
of resistance, when fear itself begets a sort of courage, 
when a convulsive burst of popular rage and despair 
warns tyrants not to presume too far on the patience 
of mankind. But against misgovernment such as then 
afflicted Bengal it was impossible to struggle. The 
superior intelligence and energy of the dominant class 
made their power irresistible. A war of Bengalees 
against Englishmen was like a war of sheep against 
wolves, of men against demons. The only protection 



WARREN HASTINGS 153 

which the conquered could find was in the moderation, 
the clemency, the enlarged policy of the conquerors. 
That protection, at a later period, they found. But 
at first English power came among them unaccom- 
panied by English morality. There was an interval 
between the time at which they became our subjects, 
and the time at which we began to reflect that we 
were bound to discharge towards them the duties of 
rulers. During that interval the business of a servant 
of the Company was simply to wring out of the na- 
tives a hundred or two hundred thousand pounds as 
speedily as possible, that he might return home before 
his constitution had suffered from the heat, to marry 
a peer's daughter, to buy rotten boroughs ^ in Corn- 
wall, and to give balls in St. James's Square. Of the 
conduct of Hastings at this time little is known; but 
the little that is known, and the circumstance that 
little is known, must be considered as honorable to 
him. He could not protect the natives: all that he 
could do was to abstain from plundering and oppres- 
sing them; and this he appears to have done. It is 
certain that at this time he continued poor; and it is 
equally certain that by cruelty and dishonesty he might 
easily have become rich. It is certain that he was 
never charged with having borne a share in the worst 
abuses which then prevailed; and it is almost equally 
certain that, if he had borne a share in those abuses, 
the able and bitter enemies who afterwards persecuted 
him would not have failed to discover and to proclaim 
his guilt. The keen, severe, and even malevolent scru- 



154 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

tiny to which his whole public life was subjected, a 
scrutiny unparalleled, as we believe, in the history of 
mankind, is in one respect advantageous to his repu- 
tation. It brought many lamentable blemishes to light; 
but it entitles him to be considered pure from every 
blemish which has not been brought to light. 

The truth is that the temptations to which so many 
English functionaries yielded in the time of Mr. Van- 
sittart were not temptations addressed to the ruling 
passions of Warren Hastings. He was not squeamish 
in pecuniary transactions; but he was neither sordid 
nor rapacious. He was far too enlightened a man to 
look on a great empire merely as a buccaneer would 
look on a galleon. Had his heart been much worse 
than it was, his understanding would have preserved 
him from that extremity of baseness. He was an un- 
scrupulous, perhaps an unprincipled, statesman; but 
still he was a statesman, and not a freebooter. 

In 1764 Hastings returned to England. He had 
realized only a very moderate fortune; and that mod- 
erate fortune was soon reduced to nothing, partly by 
his praiseworthy liberality, and partly by his misman- 
agement. Towards his relations he appears to have 
acted very generously. The greater part of his sav- 
ings he left in Bengal, hoping probably to obtain the 
high usury of India. But high usury and bad secu- 
rity generally go together; and Hastings lost both in- 
terest and principal. 

He remained four years in England. Of his life at 
this time very little is known. But it has been asserted, 



WARREN HASTINGS 155 

and is highly probable, that liberal studies and the 
society of men of letters occupied a great part of his 
time. It is to be remembered to his honor that, in 
days when the languages of the East were regarded by 
other servants of the Company merely as the means 
of communicating with weavers and money-changers, 
his enlarged and accomplished' mind sought in Asiatic 
learning for new forms of intellectual enjoyment, and 
for new views of government and society. Perhaps, 
like most persons who have paid much attention to 
departments of knowledge which lie out of the common 
track, he was inclined to overrate the value of his 
favorite studies. He conceived that the cultivation of 
Persian literature might with advantage be made a 
part of the liberal education of an English gentleman; 
and he drew up a plan with that view. It is said that 
the University of Oxford, in which Oriental learning 
had never, since the revival of letters, been wholly neg- 
lected, was to be the seat of the institution which he 
contemplated. An endowment was expected from the 
munificence of the Company : and professors thoroughly 
competent to interpret Hafiz and Ferdusi were to be 
engaged in the East. Hastings called on Johnson, with 
the hope, as it should seem, of interesting in this proj- 
ect a man who enjoyed the highest literary reputa- 
tion, and who was particularly connected with Oxford. 
The interview appears to have left on Johnson's mind a 
most favorable impression of the talents and attain- 
ments of his visitor. Long after, when Hastings was 
ruling the immense population of British India, the 



156 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

old philosopher wrote to him, and referred in the most 
courtly terms, though with great dignity, to their short 
but agreeable intercourse. 

Hastings soon began to look again towards India. 
He had little to attach him to England; and his pe- 
cuniary embarrassments were great. He solicited his 
old masters the Directors for employment. They ac- 
ceded to his request, with high compliments both to 
his abilities and to his integrity, and appointed him a 
Member of Council at Madras. It would be unjust not 
to mention that, though forced to borrow money for 
his outfit, he did not withdraw any portion of the sum 
which he had appropriated to the relief of his distressed 
relations. In the spring of 1769 he embarked on board 
of the Duke of Grafton, and commenced a voyage dis- 
tinguished by incidents which might furnish matter 
for a novel. 

Among the passengers in the Duke of Grafton was 
a German of the name of Imhoff. He called himself 
a Baron; but he was in distressed circumstances, and 
was going out to Madras as a portrait-painter, in the 
hope of picking up some of the pagodas ^ which were 
then lightly got and as lightly spent by the English 
in India. The Baron was accompanied by his wife, a 
native, we have somewhere read, of Archangel. This 
young woman who, born under the Arctic circle, was 
destined to play the part of a Queen under the tropic 
of Cancer, had an agreeable person, a cultivated mind, 
and manners in the highest degree engaging. She de- 
spised her husband heartily, and, as the story which 



WARREN HASTINGS 157 

we have to tell sufficiently proves, not without reason. 
She was interested by the conversation and flattered 
by the attentions of Hastings. The situation was in- 
deed perilous. No place is so propitious to the forma- 
tion either of close friendships or of deadly enmities 
as an Indiaman.^ There are very few people who 
do not find a voyage which lasts several months in- 
supportably dull. Anything is welcome which may 
break that long monotony, a sail, a shark, an albatross, 
a man overboard. Most passengers find some resource 
in eating twice as many meals as on land. But the 
great devices for killing the time are quarrelling and 
flirting. The facilities for both these exciting pursuits 
are great. The inmates of the ship are thrown to- 
gether far more than in any country-seat or boarding- 
house. None can escape from the rest except by im- 
prisoning himself in a cell in which he can hardly turn. 
All food, all exercise, is taken in company. Ceremony 
is to a great extent banished. It is every day in the 
power of a mischievous person to inflict innumerable 
annoyances. It is every day in the power of an ami- 
able person to confer little services. It not seldom 
happens that serious distress and danger call forth, in 
genuine beauty and deformity, heroic virtues and ab- 
ject vices which, in the ordinary intercourse of good 
society, might remain during many years unknown even 
to intimate associates. Under such circumstances met 
Warren Hastings and the Baroness Imhoff, two per- 
sons whose accomphshments would have attracted no- 
tice in any court of Europe. The gentleman had no 



158 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

domestic ties. The lady was tied to a husband for 
whom she had no regard, and who had no regard for 
his own honor. An attachment sprang up, which was 
soon strengthened by events such as could hardly have 
occurred on land. Hastings fell ill. The Baroness 
nursed him with womanly tenderness, gave him his 
medicines with her own hand, and even sat up in his 
cabin while he slept. Long before the Duke of Graf- 
ton reached Madras, Hastings was in love. But his 
love was of a most characteristic description. Like his 
hatred, like his ambition, like all his passions, it was 
strong, but not impetuous. It was calm, deep, ear- 
nest, patient of delay, unconquerable by time. Imhoff 
was called into council by his wife and his wife's lover. 
It was arranged that the Baroness should institute a 
suit for a divorce in the courts of Franconia, that the 
Baron should afford every facility to the proceeding, 
and that, during the years which might elapse before 
the sentence should be pronounced, they should con- 
tinue to live together. It was also agreed that Hast- 
ings should bestow some very substantial marks of grat- 
itude on the complaisant husband, and should, when 
the marriage was dissolved, make the lady his wife, 
and adopt the children whom she had already borne 
to Imhoff. 

At Madras, Hastings found the trade of the Com- 
pany in a very disorganized state. His own tastes 
would have led him rather to political than to com- 
mercial pursuits: but he knew that the favor of his 
employers depended chiefly on their dividends, and 



WARREN HASTINGS 159 

that their dividends depended chiefly on the invest- 
ment. He therefore, with great judgment, determined 
to apply his vigorous mind for a time to this depart- 
ment of business, which had been much neglected, 
since the servants of the Company had ceased to be 
clerks, and had become warriors and negotiators. 

In a very few months he effected an important re- 
form. The Directors notified to him their high appro- 
bation, and were so much pleased with his conduct that 
they determined to place him at the head of the gov- 
ernment of Bengal. Early in 1772 he quitted Fort 
St. George for his new post. The Imhoffs, who were 
still man and wife, accompanied him, and lived at Cal- 
cutta on the same plan which they had already fol- 
lowed during more than two years. 

When Hastings took his seat at the head of the 
council board, Bengal was still governed according to 
the system which Clive ^ had devised, a system which 
was, perhaps, skilfully contrived for the purpose of fa- 
cilitating and concealing a great revolution, but which, 
when that revolution was complete and irrevocable, 
could produce nothing but inconvenience. There were 
two governments,^ the real and the ostensible. The 
supreme power belonged to the Company, and was in 
truth the most despotic power that can be conceived. 
The only restraint on the English masters of the coun- 
try was that which their own justice and humanity 
imposed on them. There was no constitutional check 
on their will, and resistance to them was utterly hope- 



160 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

But, though thus absolute in reality, the English had 
not yet assumed the style of sovereignty. They held 
their territories as vassals of the throne of Delhi; they 
raised their revenues as collectors appointed by the 
imperial commission: their public seal was inscribed 
with the imperial titles; and their mint struck only 
the imperial coin. 

There was still a nabob of Bengal, who stood to the 
English rulers of his country in the same relation in 
which Augustulus stood to Odoacer,^ or the last Mero- 
vingians to Charles Martel and Pepin. He lived at 
Moorshedabad, surrounded by princely magnificence. 
He was approached with outward marks of reverence, 
and his name was used in public instruments. But 
in the government of the country he had less real 
share than the youngest writer or cadet ^ in the Com- 
pany's service. 

The English council which represented the Company 
at Calcutta was constituted on a very different plan 
from that which has since been adopted. At present 
the Governor is, as to all executive measures, abso- 
lute. He can declare war, conclude peace, appoint 
public functionaries or remove them, in opposition to 
the unanimous sense of those who sit with him in 
council. They are, indeed, entitled to know all that 
is done, to discuss all that is done, to advise, to re- 
monstrate, to send protests to England. But it is with 
the Governor that the supreme power resides, and on 
him that the whole responsibility rests. This system, 
which was introduced by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas in 



WARREN HASTINGS 161 

spite of the strenuous opposition of Mr. Burke, we 
conceive to be on the whole the best that was ever 
devised for the government of a country where no 
materials can be found for a representative constitu- 
tion. In the time of Hastings the Governor had only 
one vote in council, and, in case of an equal division, a 
casting vote. It therefore happened not unfrequently 
that he was overruled on the gravest questions; and 
it was possible that he might be wholly excluded, for 
years together, from the real direction of public affairs. 

The English functionaries at Fort William had as 
yet paid little or no attention to the internal govern- 
ment of Bengal. The only branch of politics about 
which they much busied themselves was negotiation 
with the native princes. The police, the administra- 
tion of justice, the details of the collection of revenue, 
were almost entirely neglected. We may remark that 
the phraseology of the Company's servants still bears 
the traces of this state of things. To this day they 
always use the word "political" as synonymous with 
"diplomatic." We could name a gentleman still liv- 
ing, wlio was described by the highest authority as an 
invaluable public servant, eminently fit to be at the 
head of the internal administration of a whole presi- 
dency, but unfortunately quite ignorant of all politi- 
cal business. 

The internal government of Bengal the English 
rulers delegated to a great native minister, who was sta- 
tioned at Moorshedabad. All military affairs, and, with 
the exception of what pertains to mere ceremonial, all 



162 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

foreign affairs, were withdrawn from his control; but 
the other departments of the administration were en- 
tirely confided to him. His own stipend amounted to 
near a hundred thousand pounds sterling a year. The 
personal allowance of the nabob, amounting to more 
than three hundred thousand pounds a year, passed 
through the minister's hands, and was, to a great 
extent, at his disposal. The collection of the revenue, 
the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, 
were left to this high functionary ; and for the exercise 
of his immense power he was responsible to none but 
the British masters of the country. 

A situation so important, lucrative, and splendid, 
was naturally an object of ambition to the ablest and 
most powerful natives. Clive had found it difficult to 
decide between conflicting pretensions. Two candi- 
dates stood out prominently from the crowd, each of 
them the representative of a race and of a religion. 

One of these was Mahommed Reza Khan, a Mus- 
sulman of Persian extraction, able, active, religious 
after the fashion of his people, and highly esteemed 
by them. In England he might perhaps have been 
regarded as a corrupt and greedy politician. But, 
tried by the lower standard of Indian morality, he 
might be considered as a man of integrity and honor. 

His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin whose name 
has, by a terrible and melancholy event, been insepa- 
rably associated with that of Warren Hastings, the Ma- 
harajah Nuncomar. This man had played an impor- 
tant part in all the revolutions which, since the time of 



WARREN HASTINGS 163 

Surajah Dowlah, had taken place in Bengal. To the 
consideration which in that country belongs to high 
and pure caste, he added the weight which is derived 
from wealth, talents, and experience. Of his moral 
character it is difficult to give a notion to those who 
are acquainted with human nature only as it appears 
in our island. What the Italian is to the Englishman, 
what the Hindoo is to the Italian, what the Bengalee ^ 
is to other Hindoos, that was Nuncomar to other Ben- 
galees. The physical organization of the Bengalee 
is feeble even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant 
vapor bath. His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs deli- 
cate, his movements languid. During many ages he 
has been trampled upon by men of bolder and more 
hardy breeds. Courage, independence, veracity, are 
qualities to which his constitution and his situation 
are equally unfavorable. His mind bears a singular 
analogy to his body. It is weak even to helplessness 
for purposes of manly resistance; but its suppleness 
and its tact move the children of sterner climates to 
admiration not unmingied with contempt. All those 
arts which are the natural defence of the weak are 
more f-amiliar to this subtle race than to the Ionian of 
the time of Juvenal, or to the Jew of the dark ages. 
What the horns are to the buffalo, what the paw is to 
the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what beauty, 
according to the old Greek song, is to woman, deceit 
is to the Bengalee. Large promises, smooth excuses, 
elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chicanery, 
perjury, forgery, are the weapons, offensive and de- 



164 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

fensivB; of the people of the Lower Ganges. All those 
millions do not furnish one sepoy to the armies of the 
Company. But as usurers, as money-changers, as 
sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can 
bear a comparison with them. With all his softness, 
the Bengalee is by no means placable in his enmities 
or prone to pity. The pertinacity with which he ad- 
heres to his purposes yields only to the immediate 
pressure of fear. Nor does he lack a certain kind of 
courage which is often wanting to his masters. To in- 
evitable evils he is sometimes found to oppose a pas- 
sive fortitude, such as the Stoics attributed to their 
ideal sage. A European warrior, who rushes on a 
battery of cannon with a loud hurrah, will sometimes 
shriek under the surgeon's knife, and fall into an agony 
of despair at the sentence of death. But the Bengalee, 
who would see his country overrun, his house laid in 
ashes, his children murdered or dishonored, without 
having the spirit to strike one blow, has yet been 
known to endure torture with the firmness of Mucins, 
and to mount the scaffold with the steady step and 
even pulse of Algernon Sidney. 

In Nuncomar, the national character was strongly 
and with exaggeration personified. The Company's 
servants had repeatedly detected him in the most crim- 
inal intrigues. On one occasion he brought a false 
charge against another Hindoo, and tried to substanti- 
ate it by producing forged documents. On another 
occasion it was discovered that, while professing the 
strongest attachment to the English, he was engaged 



WARREN HASTINGS 165 

in several conspiracies against them, and in particular 
that he was the medium of a correspondence between 
the court of Delhi and the French authorities in the 
Carnatic. For these and similar practices he had been 
long detained in confinement. But his talents and in- 
fluence had not only procured his liberation, but had 
obtained for him a certain degree of consideration even 
among the British rulers of his country. 

Clive was extremely unwilling to place a Mussul- 
man at the head of the administration of Bengal. On 
the other hand, he could not bring himself to confer 
immense power on a man to whom every sort of villany 
had repeatedly been brought home. Therefore, though 
the nabob, over whom Nuncomar had by intrigue ac- 
quired great influence, begged that the artful Hindoo 
might be intrusted with the government, Clive, after 
some hesitation, decided honestly and wisely in favor 
of Mahommed Reza Khan. When Hastings became 
Governor, Mahommed Reza Khan had held power 
seven years. An infant son of Meer Jaffier was now 
nabob; and the guardianship of the young prince's per- 
son had been confided to the minister. 

Nuncomar, stimulated at once by cupidity and mal- 
ice, had been constantly attempting to hurt the reputa- 
tion of his successful rival. This was not difficult. The 
revenues of Bengal, under the administration estab- 
lished by Clive, did not yield such a surplus as had been 
anticipated by the Company; for, at that time, the 
most absurd notions were entertained in England re- 
specting the wealth of India. Palaces of porphyry, 



166 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

hung with the richest brocade, heaps of pearls and dia- 
monds, vaults from which pagodas and gold mohurs 
were measured out by the bushel, filled the imagina- 
tion even of men of business. Nobody seemed to be 
aware of what nevertheless was most undoubtedly the 
truth, that India was a poorer country than countries 
which in Europe are reckoned poor, than Ireland, for 
example, or than Portugal. It was confidently be- 
lieved by Lords of the Treasury and members for 
the city that Bengal would not only defray its own 
charges, but would afford an increased dividend to the 
proprietors of India stock, and large relief to the Eng- 
lish finances. These absurd expectations were disap- 
pointed; and the Directors, naturally enough, chose to 
attribute the disappointment rather to the mismanage- 
ment of Mahommed Reza Khan than to their own ig- 
norance of the country intrusted to their care. They 
were confirmed in their error by the agents of Nun- 
comar; for Nuncomar had agents even in Leadenhall 
Street.^ Soon after Hastings reached Calcutta, he re- 
ceived a letter addressed by the Court of Directors, not 
to the council generally, but to himself in particular. 
He was directed to remove Mahommed Reza Khan, to 
arrest him, together with all his family and all his par- 
tisans, and to institute a strict inquiry into the whole 
administration of the province. It was added that 
the Governor would do well to avail himself of the as- 
sistance of Nuncomar in the investigation. The vices 
of Nuncomar were acknowledged. But even from his 
vices, it was said, much advantage might at such a 



WARREN HASTINGS 167 

conjuncture be derived; and, though he could not 
safely be trusted, it might still be proper to encourage 
him by hopes of reward. 

The Governor bore no good will to Nuncomar. 
Many years before, they had known each other at 
Moorshedabad; and then a quarrel had arisen be- 
tween them which all the authority of their superiors 
could hardly compose. Widely as they differed in most 
points, they resembled each other in this, that both 
were men of unforgiving natures. To Mahommed Reza 
Khan, on the other hand, Hastings had no feelings of 
hostility. Nevertheless he proceeded to execute the 
instructions of the Company with an alacrity which he 
never showed, except when instructions were in per- 
fect conformity with his own views. He had, wisely 
as we think, determined to get rid of the system of 
double government in Bengal. The orders of the Di- 
rectors furnished him with the means of effecting his 
purpose, and dispensed him from the necessity of dis- 
cussing the matter with his Council. He took his meas- 
ures with his usual vigor and dexterity. At midnight, 
the palace of Mahommed Reza Khan at Moorshedabad 
was surrounded by a battalion of sepoys. The minister 
was roused from his slumbers and informed that he was 
a prisoner. With the Mussulman gravity, he bent his 
head and submitted himself to the will of God. He 
fell not alone. A chief named Schitab Roy had been 
intrusted with the government of Bahar. His valor 
and his attachment to the English had more than once 
been signally proved. On that memorable day on 



168 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

which the people of Patna saw from their walls the 
whole army of the Mogul scattered by the little band 
of Captain Knox, the voice of the British conquerors 
assigned the palm of gallantry to the brave Asiatic. 
"I never/' said Knox, when he introduced Schitab 
Roy, covered with blood and dust, to the English func- 
tionaries assembled in the factory, " I never saw a na- 
tive fight so before." Schitab Roy was involved in the 
ruin of Mahommed Reza Khan, was removed from 
office, and was placed under arrest. The members of 
the Council received no intimation of these measures 
till the prisoners were on their road to Calcutta. 

The inquiry into the conduct of the minister was 
postponed on different pretences. He was detained in 
an easy confinement during many months. In the 
meantime, the great revolution which Hastings had 
planned was carried into effect. The office of minister 
was abolished. The internal administration was trans- 
ferred to the servants of the Company. A system, 
a very imperfect system, it is true, of civil and crimi- 
nal justice, under English superintendence, was estab- 
lished. The nabob was no longer to have even an 
ostensible share in the government ; but he was still to 
receive a considerable annual allowance, and to be sur- 
rounded with the state of sovereignty. As he was an 
infant, it was necessary to provide guardians for his 
person and property. His person was intrusted to a 
lady of his father's harem, known by the name of the 
Munny Begum. The office of treasurer of the house- 
hold was bestowed on a son of Nuncomar, named Goor- 



WARREN HASTINGS 169 

das. Nuncomar's services were wanted; yet he could 
not safely be trusted with power; and Hastings thought 
it a masterstroke of policy to reward the able and un- 
principled parent by promoting the inoffensive child. 

The revolution completed, the double government 
dissolved, the Company installed in the full sovereignty 
of Bengal; Hastings had no motive to treat the late min- 
isters with rigor. Their trial had been put off on vari- 
ous pleas till the new organization was complete. They 
were then brought before a committee, over which the 
Governor presided. Schitab Roy was speedily ac- 
quitted with honor. A formal apology was made to 
him for the restraint to which he had been subjected. 
All the Eastern marks of respect were bestowed on 
him. He was clothed in a robe of state, presented with 
jewels and with a richly harnessed elephant, and sent 
back to his government at Patna. But his health had 
suffered from confinement; his high spirit had been 
cruelly wounded; and soon after his liberation he died 
of a broken heart. 

The innocence of Mahommed Reza Khan was not 
so clearly established. But the Governor was not dis- 
posed to deal harshly. After a long hearing, in which 
Nuncomar appeared as the accuser, and displayed both 
the art and the inveterate rancor which distinguished 
him, Hastings pronounced that the charges had not 
been made out, and ordered the fallen minister to be 
set at liberty. 

Nuncomar had purposed to destroy the Mussulman 
administration, and to rise on its ruin. Both his ma- 



170 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

levolence and his cupidity had been disappointed. 
Hastings had made him a tool, had used him for the 
purpose of accomplishing the transfer of the govern- 
ment from Moorshedabad to Calcutta, from native to 
European hands. The rivals, the enemy, so long en- 
vied, so implacably persecuted, had been dismissed un- 
hurt. The situation so long and ardently desired had 
been abolished. It was natural that the Governor 
should be from that time an obj ect of the most intense 
hatred to the vindictive Brahmin. As yet, however, 
it was necessary to suppress such feelings. The time 
was coming when that long animosity was to end in a 
desperate and deadly struggle. 

In the meantime, Hastings was compelled to turn 
his attention to foreign affairs. The object of his di- 
plomacy was at this time simply to get money. The 
finances of his government were in an embarrassed 
state; and this embarrassment he was determined to 
relieve by some means, fair or foul. The principle 
which directed all his dealings with his neighbors is 
fully expressed by the old motto of one of the great 
predatory families of Teviotdale, ''Thou shalt want 
ere I want." He seems to have laid it down, as a fun- 
damental proposition which could not be disputed, 
that, when he had not as many lacs of rupees as the 
public service required, he was to take them from any- 
body who had. One thing, indeed, is to be said in ex- 
cuse for him. The pressure applied to him by his em- 
ployers at home, was such as only the highest virtue 
could have withstood, such as left him no choice ex- 



WARREN HASTINGS 171 

cept to commit great wrongs, or to resign his high post, 
and with that post all his hopes of fortune and distinc- 
tion. The Directors, it is true, never enjoined or ap- 
plauded any crime. Far from it. Whoever examines 
their letters written at that time will find there many 
just and humane sentiments, many excellent precepts, 
in short, an admirable code of political ethics. But 
every exhortation is modified or nullified by a demand 
for money. ^^ Govern leniently, and send more money; 
practise strict justice and moderation towards neigh- 
boring powers, and send more money ; " this is in truth 
the sum of almost all the instructions that Hastings 
ever received from home. Now these instructions, 
being interpreted, mean simply, " Be the father and the 
oppressor of the people; be just and unjust, moderate 
and rapacious." The Directors dealt with India, as 
the church, in the good old times, dealt with a heretic. 
They delivered the victim over to the executioners, 
with an earnest request that all possible tenderness 
might be shown. We by no means accuse or suspect 
those who framed these despatches of hypocrisy. It is 
probable that, writing fifteen thousand miles from the 
place where their orders were to be carried into effect, 
they never perceived the gross inconsistency of which 
they were guilty. But the inconsistency was at once 
manifest to their vicegerent at Calcutta, who, with an 
empty treasury, with an unpaid army, with his own 
salary often in arrear, with deficient crops, with govern- 
ment tenants daily running away, was called upon to 
remit home another half million without fail. Hastings 



172 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

saw that it was absolutely necessary for him to disre- 
gard either the moral discourses or the pecuniary req- 
uisitions of his employers. Being forced to disobey 
them in something, he had to consider what kind of 
disobedience they would most readily pardon; and he 
correctly judged that the safest course would be to 
neglect the sermons and to find the rupees.^ 

A mind so fertile as his, and so little restrained 
by conscientious scruples, speedily discovered several 
modes of relieving the financial embarrassments of the 
government. The allowance of the Nabob of Bengal 
was reduced at a stroke from three hundred and twenty 
thousand pounds a year to half that sum. The Com- 
pany had bound itself to pay near three hundred thou- 
sand pounds a year to the Great Mogul, ^ as a mark of 
homage for the provinces which he had intrusted to 
their care; and they had ceded to him the districts of 
Corah and Allahabad. On the plea that the Mogul 
was not really independent, but merely a tool in the 
hands of others, Hastings determined to retract these 
concessions. He accordingly declared that the Eng- 
lish would pay no more tribute, and sent troops to 
occupy Allahabad and Corah. The situation of these 
places was such, that there would be little advantage 
and great expense in retaining them. Hastings, who 
wanted money and not territory, determined to sell 
them. A purchaser was not wanting. The rich prov- 
ince of Oude* had, in the general dissolution of the 
Mogul Empire, fallen to the share of the great Mussul- 
man house by which it is still governed. About twenty 



WARREN HASTINGS 173 

years ago, this house, by the permission of the British 
government, assumed the royal title; but, in the time 
of Warren Hastings, such an assumption would have 
been considered by the Mahommedans of India as a 
monstrous impiety. The Prince of Oude, though he 
held the power, did not venture to use the style of 
sovereignty. To the appellation of Nabob ^ or Viceroy, 
he added that of Vizier of the monarchy of Hindostan, 
just as in the last century the Electors of Saxony and 
Brandenburg, though independent of the Emperor, 
and often in arms against him, were proud to style 
themselves his Grand Chamberlain and Grand Mar- 
shal. Sujah Dowlah, then Nabob Vizier, was on excel- 
lent terms with the English. He had a large treasure. 
Allahabad and Corah were so situated that they might 
be of use to him and could be of none to the Company. 
The buyer and seller soon came to an understanding; 
and the provinces which had been torn from the Mogul 
were made over to the government of Oude for about 
half a million sterling. 

But there was another matter still more important 
to be settled by the Vizier and the Governor. The fate 
of a brave people was to be decided. It was decided 
in a manner which has left a lasting stain on the fame 
of Hastings and of England. 

The people of Central Asia had always been to the 
inhabitants of India what the warriors of the German 
forests were to the subjects of the decaying monarchy 
of Rome. The dark, slender, and timid Hindoo shrank 
from a conflict with the strong muscle and resolute 



174 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

spirit of the fair race, which dwelt beyond their passes. 
There is reason to believe that, at a period anterior to 
the dawn of regular history, the people who spoke the 
rich and flexible Sanscrit came from regions lying far 
beyond the Hyphasis and the Hystaspes, and imposed 
their yoke on the children of the soil. It is certain that, 
during the last ten centuries, a succession of invaders 
descended from the west on Hindostan; nor was the 
course of conquest ever turned back towards the set- 
ting sun, till that memorable campaign in which the 
cross of Saint George ^ was planted on the walls of 
Ghizni. 

The Emperors of Hindostan themselves came from 
the other side of the great mountain ridge; and it had 
always been their practice to recruit their army from 
the hardy and valiant race from which their own illus- 
trious house sprang. Among the military adventur- 
ers who were allured to the Mogul standards from the 
neighborhood of Cabul and Candahar, were conspicu- 
ous several gallant bands, known by the name of the 
Rohillas.^ Their services had been rewarded with 
large tracts of land, fiefs of the spear, if we may use an 
expression drawn from an analogous state of things, in 
that fertile plain through which the Ramgunga flows 
from the snowy heights of Kumaon to join the Ganges. 
In the general confusion which followed the death of 
Aurungzebe, the warlike colony became virtually in- 
dependent. The Rohillas were distinguished from the 
other inhabitants of India by a peculiarly fair com- 
plexion. They were more honorably distinguished by 



WARREN HASTINGS 175 

courage in war, and by skill in the arts of peace. While 
anarchy raged from Lahore to Cape Comorin, their 
little territory enjoyed the blessings of repose under 
the guardianship of valor. Agriculture and commerce 
flourished among them; nor were they negligent of 
rhetoric and poetry. Many persons now living have 
heard aged men talk with regret of the golden days 
when the Afghan princes ruled in the vale of Rohilcund. 
Sujah Dowlah had set his heart on adding this rich 
district to his own principality. Right or show of 
right, he had absolutely none. His claim was in no re- 
spect better founded than that of Catherine to Po- 
land/ or that of the Bonaparte family to Spain. The 
Rohillas held their country by exactly the same title 
by which he held his, and had governed their country 
far better than his had ever been governed. Nor were 
they a people whom it was perfectly safe to attack. 
Their land was indeed an open plain destitute of nat- 
ural defences; but their veins were full of the high 
blood of Afghanistan. As soldiers, they had not the 
steadiness which is seldom found except in company 
with strict discipline; but their impetuous valor had 
been proved on many fields of battle. It was said that 
their chiefs, when united by common peril, could bring 
eighty thousand men into the field. Sujah Dowlah 
had himself seen them fight, and wisely shrank from 
a conflict with them. There was in India one army, 
and only one, against which even those proud Caucasian 
tribes could not stand. It had been abundantly proved 
that neither tenfold odds, nor the martial ardor of the 



176 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

boldest Asiatic nations, could avail aught against Eng- 
lish science and resolution. Was it possible to induce 
the Governor of Bengal to let out to hire the irresist- 
ible energies of the imperial people, the skill against 
which the ablest chiefs of Hindostan were helpless as 
infants, the discipline which had so often triumphed 
over the frantic struggles of fanaticism and despair, 
the unconquerable British courage which is never so 
sedate and stubborn as towards the close of a doubtful 
and murderous day? 

This was what the Nabob Vizier asked, and what 
Hastings granted. A bargain was soon struck. Each 
of the negotiators had v/hat the other wanted. Hast- 
ings was in need of funds to carry on the government 
of Bengal, and to send remittances to London; and 
Sujah Dowlah had an ample revenue. Sujah Dowlah 
was bent on subjugating the Rohillas; and Hastings 
had at his disposal the only force by which the Rohillas 
could be subjugated. It was agreed that an English 
army should be lent to the Nabob Vizier, and that, 
for the loan, he should pay four hundred thousand 
pounds sterling, besides defraying all the charge of the 
troops while employed in his service. 

"I really cannot see," says Mr. Gleig, "upon what 
grounds, either of political or moral justice, this prop- 
osition deserves to be stigmatized as infamous." If 
we understand the meaning of words, it is infamous to 
commit a wicked action for hire, and it is wicked to 
engage in war without provocation. In this particular 
war, scarcely one aggravating circumstance was want- 



WARREN HASTINGS 177 

ing. The object of the Rohilla war was this, to deprive 
a large population, who had never done us the least 
harm, of a good government, and to place them, against 
their will, under an execrably bad one. Nay, even this 
is not all. England now descended far below the level 
even of those petty German princes who, about the 
same time, sold us troops to fight the Americans. The 
hussar-mongers of Hesse and Anspach had at least the 
assurance that the expeditions on which their soldiers 
were to be employed would be conducted in conformity 
with the humane rules of civilized warfare. Was the 
Rohilla war likely to be so conducted? Did the Gov- 
ernor stipulate that it should be so conducted? He 
well knew what Indian warfare was. He well knew 
that the power which he covenanted to put into Sujah 
Dowlah's hands would, in all probability, be atrociously 
abused ; and he required no guarantee, no promise that 
it should not be so abused. He did not even reserve to 
himself the right of withdrawing his aid in case of abuse, 
however gross. We are almost ashamed to notice 
Major Scott's absurd plea, that Hastings was justified 
in letting out English troops to slaughter the Rohillas, 
because the Rohillas were not of Indian race, but a 
colony from a distant country. What were the Eng- 
lish themselves? Was it for them to proclaim a crusade 
for the expulsion of all intruders from the countries 
watered by the Ganges? Did it He in their mouths to 
contend that a foreign settler' who establishes an em- 
pire in India is a caput lupinum? What would they 
have said if any other power had, on such a ground, 



178 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

attacked Madras or Calcutta without the sHghtest prov- 
ocation? Such a defence was wanting to make the 
infamy of the transaction complete. The atrocity of 
the crime, and the hypocrisy of the apology, are worthy 
of each other. 

One of the three brigades of which the Bengal army 
consisted was sent under Colonel Champion to join 
Sujah Dowlah's forces. The Rohillas expostulated, 
entreated, offered a large ransom, but in vain. They 
then resolved to defend themselves to the last. A 
bloody battle was fought. "The enemy," says Colonel 
Champion, "gave proof of a good share of military 
knowledge; and it is impossible to describe a more ob- 
stinate firmness of resolution than they displayed." 
The dastardly sovereign of Oude fled from the field. 
The English were left unsupported; but their fire and 
their charge were irresistible. It was not, however, 
till the most distinguished chiefs had fallen, fighting 
bravely at the head of their troops, that the Rohilla 
ranks gave way. Then the Nabob Vizier and his rabble 
made their appearance, and hastened to plunder the 
camp of the valiant enemies, whom they had never 
dared to look in the face. The soldiers of the Company, 
trained in an exact discipline, kept unbroken order, 
while the tents were pillaged by these worthless allies. 
But many voices were heard to exclaim, "We have 
had all the fighting, and those rogues are to have all the 
profit." 

Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the 
fair valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole coun- 



WARREN HASTINGS 179 

try was in a blaze. More than a hundred thousand 
people fled from their homes to pestilential jungles, 
preferring famine, and fever, and the haunts of tigers, 
to the tyranny of him, to whom an English and a Chris- 
tain government had, for shameful lucre, sold their sub- 
stance, and their blood, and the honor of their wives 
and daughters. Colonel Champion remonstrated with 
the Nabob Vizier, and sent strong representations to 
Fort William; but the Governor had made no condi- 
tions as to the mode in which the war was to be carried 
on. He had troubled himself about nothing but his 
forty lacs; and, though he might disapprove of Sujah 
Dowlah's wanton barbarity, he did not think himself 
entitled to interfere, except by offering advice. This 
delicacy excites the admiration of the biographer. 
"Mr. Hastings,'' he says,- '' could not himxself dictate to 
the Nabob, nor permit the commander of the Com- 
pany's troops to dictate how the war was to be carried 
on." No, to be sure. Mr. Hastings had only to put 
down by main force the brave struggles of innocent men 
fighting for their liberty. Their military resistance 
crushed, his duties ended; and he had then only to fold 
his arms and look on, while their villages were burned, 
their children butchered, and their women violated. 
Will Mr. Gleig seriously maintain this opinion? Is any 
rule more plain than this, that whoever voluntarily 
gives to another irresistible power over human beings 
is bound to take order that such power shall not be bar- 
barously abused? But we beg pardon of our readers 
for arguing a point so clear. 



180 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

We hasten to the end of this sad and disgraceful 
story. The war ceased. The finest population in India 
was subjected to a greedy, cowardly, cruel tyrant. 
Commerce and agriculture languished. The rich prov- 
ince which had tempted the cupidity of Sujah Dowlah 
became the most miserable part even of his miserable 
dominions. Yet is the injured nation not extinct. At 
long intervals gleams of its ancient spirit have flashed 
forth ; and even at this day, valor, and self-respect, and 
a chivalrous feeling rare among Asiatics, and a bitter 
remembrance of the great crime of England, distinguish 
that noble Afghan race. To this day they are regarded 
as the best of all sepoys at the cold steel; and it was very 
recently remarked, by one who had enjoyed .great op- 
portunities of observation, that the only natives of 
India to whom the word " gentleman " can with perfect 
propriety be applied, are to be found among the Ro- 
hillas. 

Whatever we may think of the morality of Hastings, 
it cannot be denied that the financial results of his 
policy did honor to his talents. In less than two years 
after he assumed the government, he had, without im- 
posing any additional burdens on the people subject 
to his authority, added about four hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds to the annual income of the Company, 
besides procuring about a million in ready money. He 
had also relieved the finances of Bengal from military 
expenditure, amounting to near a quarter of a million 
a year, and had thrown that charge on the Nabob of 
Oude. There can be no doubt that this was a result 



WARREN HASTINGS 181 

which, if it had been obtained by honest means, would 
have entitled him to the warmest gratitude of his coun- 
try, and which, by whatever means obtained, proved 
that he possessed great talents for administration. 

In the meantime. Parliament had been engaged in 
long and grave discussions on Asiatic affairs. The 
ministry of Lord North, in the session of 1773, intro- 
duced a measure which made a considerable change in 
the constitution of the Indian government. This law, 
known by the name of the Regulating Act, provided 
that the presidency of Bengal should exercise a con- 
trol over the other possessions of the Company; that 
the chief of that presidency should be styled Governor- 
General; that he should be assisted by four Councillors; 
and that a supreme court of judicature, consisting of a 
chief justice and three inferior judges, should be es- 
tablished at Calcutta. This court was made independ- 
ent of the Governor-General and Council, and was in- 
trusted with a civil and criminal jurisdiction of im- 
mense and, at the same time, of undefined extent. 

The Governor-General and Councillors were named 
in the act, and were to hold their situations for five 
years. Hastings was to be the first Governor-General. 
One of the four new Councillors, Mr. Barwell, an ex- 
perienced servant of the Company, was then in India. 
The other three. General Claverihg, Mr. Monson, and 
Mr. Francis, were sent out from England. 

The ablest of the new Councillors was, beyond all 
doubt, Philip Francis. His acknowledged compositions 
prove that he possessed considerable eloquence and in- 



182 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

formation. Several years passed in the public offices 
had formed him to habits of business. His enemies 
have never denied that he had a fearless and manly 
spirit; and his friends, we are afraid, must acknowledge 
that his estimate of himself was extravagantly high, 
that his temper was irritable, that his deportment was 
often rude and petulant, and that his hatred was of 
intense bitterness and long duration. 

It is scarcely possible to mention this eminent man 
without adverting for a moment to the question which 
his name at once suggests to every mind. Was he the 
author of the Letters of Junius? ^ Our own firm belief 
is that he was. The evidence is, we think, such as 
would support a verdict in a civil, nay, in a criminal 
proceeding. The handwriting of Junius is the very pe- 
culiar handwriting of Francis, slightly disguised. As to 
the position, pursuits, and connections of Junius, the 
following are the most important facts which can be 
considered as clearly proved: first, that he was ac- 
quainted with the technical forms of the secretary of 
state's office; secondly, that he was intimately ac- 
quainted with the business of the war-office; thirdly, 
that he, during the year 1770, attended debates in the 
House of Lords, and took notes of speeches, particu- 
larly of the speeches of Lord Chatham; ^ fourthly, that 
he bitterly resented the appointment of Mr. Chamier 
to the place of deputy secretary-at-war; fifthly, that 
he was bound by some strong tie to the first Lord Hol- 
land. Now, Francis passed some years in the secretary 
of state's office. He was subsequently chief clerk of the 



WARREN HASTINGS 183 

war-office. He repeatedly mentioned that he had him- 
self in 1770, heard speeches of Lord Chatham; and 
some of these speeches were actually printed from his 
notes. He resigned his clerkship at the war-office from 
resentment at the appointment of Mr. Chamier. It was 
by Lord Holland that he was first introduced into the 
public service. Now, here are five marks, all of which 
ought to be found in Junius. They are all five found in 
Francis. We do not believe that more than two of 
them can be found in any other person whatever. If 
this argument does not settle the question, there is an 
end of all reasoning on circumstantial evidence. 

The internal evidence seems to us to point the same 
way. The style of Francis bears a strong resemblance 
to that of Junius; nor are we disposed to admit, what 
is generally taken for granted, that the acknowledged 
compositions of Francis are very decidedly inferior to 
the anonymous letters. The argument from inferiority, 
at all events, is one which may be urged with at least 
equal force against every claimant that has- ever been 
mentioned, with the single exception of Burke; and it 
would be a waste of time to prove that Burke was not 
Junius. And what conclusion, after all, can be drawn 
from mere inferiority? Every writer must produce his 
best work ; and the interval between his best work and 
his second best work may be very wide indeed. No- 
body will say that the best letters of Junius are more de- 
cidedly superior to the acknowledged works of Francis 
than three or four of Corneille's tragedies to the rest, 
than three or four of Ben Jonson's comedies to the rest, 



184 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

than the Pilgrim's Progress to the other works of Bun- 
yan, than Don Quixote to the other works of Cervantes. 
Nay, it is certain that Junius, whoever he may have 
been, was a most unequal writer. To go no further than 
the letters which bear the signature of Junius ; the letter 
to the King, and the letters to Home Tooke, have little 
in common, except the asperity; and asperity was an 
ingredient seldom wanting either in the writings or in 
the speeches of Francis. 

Indeed one of the strongest reasons for believing 
that Francis was Junius is the moral resemblance be- 
tween the two men. It is not difficult, from the letters 
which, under various signatures, are known to have 
been written by Junius, and from his dealings with 
Woodfall ^ and others, to form a tolerably correct no- 
tion of his character. He was clearly a man not desti- 
tute of real patriotism and magnanimity, a man whose 
vices were not of a sordid kind. But he must also have 
been a man in the highest degree arrogant and insolent, 
a man prone to malevolence, and prone to the error of 
mistaking his malevolence for public virtue. "Doest 
thou well to be angry?" was the question asked in old 
time of the Hebrew prophet. And he answered, " I do 
well." This was evidently the temper of Junius; and to 
this cause we attribute the savage cruelty which dis- 
graces several of his letters. No man is so merciless as 
he who, under a strong self-delusion, confounds his 
antipathies with his duties. It may be added that 
Junius, though allied with the democratic party by 
common enmities, was the very opposite of a demo- 



WARREN HASTINGS 185 

cratic politician. While attacking individuals with a fe- 
rocity which perpetually violated all the laws of literary 
warfare, he regarded the most defective parts of old 
institutions with a respect amounting to pedantry, 
pleaded the cause of Old Sarum ^ with fervor, and con- 
temptuously told the capitalists of Manchester and 
Leeds that, if they wanted votes, they might buy land 
and become freeholders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. 
All this, we beHeve, might stand, with scarcely any 
change, for a character of Philip Francis. 

It is not strange that the great anonymous writer 
should have been willing at that time to leave the 
country which had been so powerfully stirred by his 
eloquence. Everything had gone against him. That 
party which he clearly preferred to every other, the 
party of George Grenville, had been scattered by the 
death of its chief; and Lord Suffolk had led the greater 
part of it over to the ministerial benches. The ferment 
produced by the Middlesex election had gone down. 
Every faction must have been alike an object of aver- 
sion to Junius. His opinions on domestic affairs sepa- 
rated him from the ministry; his opinions on colonial 
affairs from the opposition. Under such circumstances, 
he had thrown down his pen in misanthropical despair. 
His farewell letter to Woodfall bears date the nine- 
teenth of January 1773. In that letter, he declared 
that he must be an idiot to write again ; that he had 
meant well by the cause and the public; that both were 
given up; that there were not ten men who would act 
steadily together on any question. " But it is all alike, 



186 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

he added, "vile and contemptible. You have never 
flinched that I know of; and I shall always rejoice to 
hear of your prosperity/' These were the last words of 
Junius. In a year from that time, Philip Francis was 
on his voyage to Bengal. 

With the three new Councillors came out the judges 
of the Supreme Court. The chief justice was Sir Elijah 
Impey.^ He was an old acquaintance of Hastings; and 
it is probable that the Governor-General, if he had 
searched through all the Inns of Court, could not have 
found an equally serviceable tool. But the members of 
Council were by no means in an obsequious mood. 
Hastings greatly disliked the new form of government, 
and had no very high opinion of his coadjutors. They 
had heard of this, and were disposed to be suspicious 
and punctilious. When men are in such a frame of 
mind, any trifle is sufficient to give occasion for dispute. 
The members of Council expected a salute of twenty- 
one guns ^ from the batteries of Fort William. Hast- 
ings allowed them only seventeen. They landed in ill- 
humor. The first civilities were exchanged with cold 
reserve. On the morrow commenced that long quarrel 
which, after distracting British India, was renewed in 
England, and in which all the most eminent statesmen 
and orators of the age took active part on one or the 
other side. 

Hastings was supported by Barwell. They had not 
always been friends. But the arrival of the new mem- 
bers of Council from England naturally had the effect 
of uniting the old servants of the Company. Claver- 



WARREN HASTINGS 187 

ing, Monson, and Francis formed the majority. They 
instantly wrested the government out of the hands of 
Hastings, condemned, certainly not without justice, 
his late dealings with the Nabob Vizier, recalled the 
English agent from Oude, and sent thither a creature 
of their own, ordered the brigade which had conquered 
the unhappy Rohillas to return to the Company's terri- 
tories, and instituted a severe inquiry into the conduct 
of the war. Next, in spite of the Governor-General's 
remonstrances, they proceeded to exercise, in the most 
indiscreet manner, their new authority over the sub- 
ordinate presidencies; threw all the affairs of Bombay 
into confusion; and interfered, with an incredible union 
of rashness and feebleness, in the intestine disputes of 
the Mahratta government.^ At the same time, they 
fell on the internal administration of Bengal, and at- 
tacked the whole fiscal and judicial system, a system 
which was undoubtedly defective, but which it was 
very improbable that gentlemen fresh from England 
would be competent to amend. The effect of their re- 
forms was that all protection to Hfe and property was 
withdrawn, and that gangs of robbers plundered and 
slaughtered with impunity in the very suburbs of Cal- 
cutta. Hastings continued to live in the Government- 
house, and to draw the salary of Governor-General. 
He continued even to take the lead at the council- 
board in the transaction of ordinary business; for his 
opponents could not but feel that he knew much of 
which they were ignorant, and that he decided, both 
surely and speedily, many questions which to them 



188 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

would have been hopelessly puzzling. But the higher 
powers of government and the most valuable patronage 
had been taken from him. 

The natives soon found this out. They considered 
him as a fallen man; and they acted after their kind. 
Some of our readers may have seen, in India, a cloud 
of crows pecking a sick vulture to death, no bad type 
of what happens in that country, as often as fortune 
deserts one who has been great and dreaded. In an 
instant, all the sycophants who had lately been ready 
to lie for him, to forge for him, to pander for him, to 
poison for him, hasten to purchase the favor of his vic- 
torious enemies by accusing him. An Indian govern- 
ment has only to let it be understood that it wishes a 
particular man to be ruined; and, in twenty-four hours, 
it will be furnished with grave charges, supported by 
depositions so full and circumstantial that any person 
unaccustomed to Asiatic mendacity would regard them 
as decisive. It is well if the signature of the destined 
victim is not counterfeited at the foot of some illegal 
compact, and if some treasonable paper is not slipped 
into a hiding-place in his house. Hastings was now 
regarded as helpless. The power to make or mar the 
fortune of every man in Bengal had passed, as it seemed, 
into the hands of the new Councillors. Immediately 
charges against the Governor-General began to pour in. 
They were eagerly welcomed by the majority, who, to 
do them justice, were men of too much honor knowingly 
to countenance false accusations, but who were not 
sufficiently acquainted with the East to be aware that, 



WARREN HASTINGS 189 

in that part of the world, a very little encouragement 
from power will call forth, in a week, more Oateses,^ and 
Bedloes, and Dangerfields, than Westminster Hall sees 
in a century. 

It would have been strange indeed if, at such a junc- 
ture, Nuncomar had remained quiet. That bad man 
was stimulated at once by malignity, by avarice, and 
by ambition. Now was the time to be avenged on his 
old enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years, to 
establish himself in the favor of the majority of the 
Council, to become the greatest native in Bengal. 
From the time of the arrival of the new Councillors, he 
had paid the most marked court to them, and had in 
consequence been excluded, with all indignity, from 
the Government-house. He now put into the hands of 
Francis, with great ceremony, a paper containing sev- 
eral charges of the most serious description. By this 
document Hastings was accused of putting offices up 
for sale, and of receiving bribes for suffering offenders 
to escape. In particular, it was alleged that Mahom- 
med Reza Khan had been dismissed with impunity, 
in consideration of a great sum paid to the Governor- 
General. 

Francis read the paper in Council. A violent alter- 
cation followed. Hastings complained in bitter terms 
of the way in which he was treated, spoke with con- 
tempt of Nuncomar and of Nuncomar's accusation, 
and denied the right of the Council to sit in judgment 
on the Governor. At the next meeting of the Board, 
another communication from Nuncomar was produced. 



190 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

He requested that he might be permitted to attend the 
Council, and that he might be heard in support of his 
assertions. Another tempestuous debate took place. 
The Governor-General maintained that the council- 
room was not a proper place for such an investigation; 
that from persons who were heated by daily conflict 
with him he could not expect the fairness of judges; 
and that he could not, without betraying the dignity 
of his post, submit to be confronted with such a man 
as Nuncomar. The majority, however, resolved to go 
into the charges. Hastings rose, declared the sitting at 
an end, and left the room, followed by Barwell. The 
other members kept their seats, voted themselves a 
council, put Clavering in the chair, and ordered Nunco- 
mar to be called in. Nuncomar not only adhered to the 
original charges, but, after the fashion of the East, pro- 
duced a large supplement. He stated that Hastings 
had received a great sum for appointing E.aj ah Goordas 
treasurer of the Nabob's household, and for committing 
the care of his Highness's person to the Munny Begum.^ 
He put in a letter purporting to bear the seal of the 
Munny Begum, for the purpose of establishing the 
truth of his story. The seal, whether forged, as Hast- 
ings affirmed, or genuine, as we are rather inclined 
to believe, proved nothing. Nuncomar, as everybody 
knows who knows India, had only to tell the Munny 
Begum that such a letter would give pleasure to the 
majority of the Council, in order to procure her attesta- 
tion. The majority, however, voted that the charge 
was made out; that Hastings had corruptly received 



WARREN HASTINGS 191 

between thirty and forty thousand pounds ; and that he 
ought to be compelled to refund. 

The general feeling among the English in Bengal 
was strongly in favor of the Governor-General. In 
talents for business, in knowledge of the country, in 
general courtesy of demeanor, he was decidedly superior 
to his persecutors. The servants of the Company were 
naturally disposed to side with the most distinguished 
member of their own body against a clerk from the 
war-office, who, profoundly ignorant of the native 
languages and of the native character, took on himself 
to regulate every department of the administration. 
Hastings, however, in spite of the general sympathy of 
his countrymen, was in a most painful situation. There 
was still an appeal to higher authority in England. If 
that authority took part with his enemies, nothing was 
left to him but to throw up his office. He accordingly 
placed his resignation in the hands of his agent in Lon- 
don, Colonel Macleane. But Macleane was instructed 
not to produce the resignation unless it should be fully 
ascertained that the feeling at the India House was ad- 
verse to the Governor-General. 

The triumph of Nuncomar seemed to be complete. 
He held a daily levee, to which his countrymen resorted 
in crowds, and to which, on one occasion, the majority 
of the Council condescended to repair. His house was 
an office for the purpose of receiving charges against 
the Governor-General. It was said that, partly by 
threats, and partly by wheedling, the villainous Brah- 
min had induced many of the wealthiest men of the 



192 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

province to send in complaints. But he was playing a 
perilous game. It was not safe to drive to despair a man 
of such resources and such determination as Hastings. 
Nuncomar, with all his acuteness, did not understand 
the nature of the institutions under which he lived. He 
saw that he had with him the majority of the body 
which made treaties, gave places, raised taxes. The 
separation between political and judicial functions was 
a thing of which he had no conception. It had probably 
never occurred to him that there was in Bengal an 
authority perfectly independent of the Council, an au- 
thority which could protect one whom the Council 
wished to destroy, and send to the gibbet one whom the 
Council wished to protect. Yet such was the fact. The 
Supreme Court was, within the sphere of its own duties, 
altogether independent of the Government. Hastings, 
with his usual sagacity, had seen how much advantage 
he might derive from possessing himself of this strong- 
hold; and he had acted accordingly. The Judges, es- 
pecially the Chief Justice, were hostile to the majority 
of the Council. The time had now come for putting 
this formidable machinery into action. 

On a sudden, Calcutta was astounded by the news 
that Nuncomar had been taken up on a charge of felony, 
committed, and thrown into the common gaol. The 
crime imputed to him was that six years before he had 
forged a bond. The ostensible prosecutor was a native. 
But it was then, and still is, the opinion of everybody, 
idiots and biographers excepted, that Hastings was the 
real mover in the business. 



WARREN HASTINGS 193 

The rage of the majority rose to the highest point. 
They protested against the proceedings of the Supreme 
Court, and sent several urgent messages to the Judges, 
demanding that Nuncomar should be admitted to 
bail. The Judges returned haughty and resolute an- 
swers. All that the Council could do was to heap hon- 
ors and emoluments on the family of Nuncomar; and 
this they did. In the meantime the assizes commenced; 
a true bill was found; and Nuncomar was brought be- 
fore Sir Elijah Impey and a jury composed of English- 
men. A great quantity of contradictory swearing, and 
the necessity of having every word of the evidence in- 
terpreted, protracted the trial to a most unusual length. 
At last a verdict of guilty was returned, and the Chief 
Justice pronounced sentence of death on the prisoner. 

That Impey ought to have respited Nuncomar we 
hold to be perfectly clear. Whether the whole proceed- 
ing was not illegal, is a question. But it is certain that, 
whatever may have been, according to technical rules 
of construction, the effect of the statute under which 
the trial took place, it was most unjust to hang a Hindoo 
for forgery. The law which made forgery capital in 
England was passed without the smallest reference to 
the state of society in India. It was unknown to the 
natives of India. It had never been put in execution 
among them, certainly not for want of delinquents. It 
was in the highest degree shocking to all their notions. 
They were not accustomed to the distinction which 
many circumstances, peculiar to our own state of so- 
ciety, have led us to make between forgery and other 



194 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

kinds of cheating. The counterfeiting of a seal was, in 
their estimation, a common act of swindHng; nor had 
it ever crossed their minds that it was to be punished 
as severely as gang-robbery or assassination. A just 
judge would, beyond all doubt, have reserved the case 
for the consideration of the sovereign. But Impey 
would not hear of mercy or delay. 

The excitement among all classes was great. Francis 
and Francis's few English adherents described the 
Governor-General and the Chief Justice as the worst of 
murderers. Clavering, it was said, swore that, even at 
the foot of the gallows, Nuncomar should be rescued. 
The bulk of the European society, though strongly at- 
tached to the Governor-General, could not but feel com- 
passion for a man who with all his crimes, had so long 
filled so large a space in their sight, who had been 
great and powerful before the British empire in India 
began to exist, and to whom, in the old times, governors 
and members of council, then mere commercial factors, 
had paid court for protection. The feeling of the Hin- 
doos was infinitely stronger. They were, indeed, not a 
people to strike one blow for their countryman. But 
his sentence filled them with sorrow and dismay. Tried 
even by their low standard of morality, he was a bad 
man. But, bad as he was, he was the head of their 
race and religion, a Brahmin of the Brahmins.^ He 
had inherited the purest and highest caste. He had 
practised with the greatest punctuality all those cere- 
monies to which the superstitious Bengalees ascribe 
far more importance than to the correct discharge of 



WARREN HASTINGS 195 

the social duties. They felt, therefore, as a devout 
Catholic in the dark ages would have felt, at seeing a 
prelate of the highest dignity sent to the gallows by a 
secular tribunal. According to their old national laws, 
a Brahmin could not be put to death for any crime 
whatever. And the crime for which Nuncomar was 
about to die was regarded by them in much the same 
light in which the selling of an unsound horse, for a 
sound price, is regarded by a Yorkshire jockey. 

The Mussulmans alone appear to have seen with 
exultation the fate of the powerful Hindoo, who had 
attempted to rise by means of the ruin of Mahommed 
Reza Khan. The Mahommedan historian ^ of those 
times takes delight in aggravating the charge. He 
assures us that in Nuncomar 's house a casket was 
found containing counterfeits of the seals of all the 
richest men of the province. We have never fallen 
in with any other authority for this story, which in 
itself is by no means improbable. 

The day drew near; and Nuncomar prepared him- 
self to die with that quiet fortitude with which the 
Bengalee, so effeminately timid in personal conflict, 
often encounters calamities for which there is no rem- 
edy. The sheriff, with the humanity which is seldom 
wanting in an English gentleman, visited the prisoner 
on the eve of the execution, and assured him that no 
indulgence, consistent with the law, should be refused 
to him. Nuncomar expressed his gratitude with great 
politeness and unaltered composure. Not a muscle of 
his face moved. Not a sigh broke from him. He put 



196 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

his finger to his forehead, and calmly said that fate 
would have its way, and that there was no resisting 
the pleasure of God. He sent his compliments to Fran- 
cis, Clavering, and Monson, and charged them to pro- 
tect Rajah Goordas, who was about to become the 
head of the Brahmins of Bengal. The sheriff with- 
drew, greatly agitated by what had passed, and Nun- 
comar sat composedly down to write notes and examine 
accounts. 

The next morning, before the sun was in his power, 
an immense concourse assembled round the place where 
the gallows had been set up. Grief and horror were 
on every face; yet to the last the multitude could 
hardly believe that the English really purposed to take 
the life of the great Brahmin. At length the mourn- 
ful procession came through the crowd. Nuncomar sat 
up in his palanquin, and looked roUnd him with unal- 
tered serenity. He had just parted from those who 
were most nearly connected with him. Their cries 
and contortions had appalled the European ministers 
of justice, but had not produced the smallest effect on 
the iron stoicism of the prisoner. The only anxiety 
which he expressed was that men of his own priestly 
caste might be in attendance to take charge of his 
corpse. He again desired to be remembered to his 
friends in the Council, mounted the scaffold with firm- 
ness, and gave the signal to the executioner. The 
moment that the drop fell, a howl of sorrow and de- 
spair rose from the innumerable spectators. Hundreds 
turned away their faces from the polluting sight, fled 



WARREN HASTINGS 197 

with loud wailings toward the Hoogley, and plunged 
into its holy waters, as if to purify themselves from the 
guilt of having looked on such a crime. These feelings 
were not confined to Calcutta. The whole province 
was greatly excited; and the population of Decca, in 
particular, gave strong signs of grief and dismay. 

Of Impey's ^ conduct it is impossible to speak too 
severely. We have already said that, in our opinion, 
he acted unjustly in refusing to respite Nuncomar. 
No rational man can doubt that he took this course in 
order to gratify the Governor-General. If we had ever 
had any doubts on that point, they would have been 
dispelled by a letter which Mr. Gleig has published. 
Hastings, three or four years later, described Impey as 
the man ^Ho whose support he was at one time in- 
debted for the safety of his fortune, honor, and rep- 
utation." These strong words can refer only to the 
case of Nuncomar; and they must mean that Impey 
hanged Nuncomar in order to support Hastings. It 
is, therefore, our deliberate opinion that Impey, sit- 
ting as a judge, put a man unjustly to death in order to 
serve a political purpose. 

But we look on the conduct of Hastings in a some- 
what different light. He was struggling for fortune, 
honor, liberty, all that makes life valuable. He was 
beset by rancorous and unprincipled enemies. From 
his colleagues he could expect no justice. He cannot 
be blamed for wishing to crush his accusers. He was 
indeed bound to use only legitimate means for that 
end. But it was not strange that he should have 



198 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

thought any means legitimate which were pronounced 
legitimate by the sages of the law, by men whose 
peculiar duty it was to deal justly between adversaries, 
and whose education might be supposed to have pecul- 
iarly qualified them for the discharge of that duty. 
Nobody demands from a party the unbending equity of 
a judge. The reason that judges are appointed is, that 
even a good man cannot be trusted to decide a cause 
in which he is himself concerned. Not a day passes 
on which an honest prosecutor does not ask for what 
none but a dishonest tribunal would grant. It is 
too much to expect that any man, when his dearest 
interests are at stake, and his strongest passions ex- 
cited, will, as against himself, be more just than the 
sworn dispensers of justice. To take an analogous 
case from the history of our own island: suppose that 
Lord Stafford, when in the Tower on suspicion of 
being concerned in the Popish plot, had been apprised 
that Titus Gates had done something which might, 
by a questionable construction, be brought under the 
head of felony. Should we severely blame Lord Staf- 
ford, in the supposed case, for causing a prosecution to 
be instituted, for furnishing funds, for using all his in- 
fluence to intercept the mercy of the Crown? We think 
not. If a judge, indeed, from favor to the Catholic 
lords, were to strain the law in order to hang Gates, 
such a judge would richly deserve impeachment. But 
it does not appear to us that the Catholic lord, by bring- 
ing the case before the judge for decision, would mate- 
rially overstep the limits of a just self-defence. 



WARREN HASTINGS 199 

While, therefore, we have not the least doubt that 
this memorable execution is to be attributed to Hast- 
ings, we doubt whether it can with justice be reckoned 
among his crimes. That his conduct was dictated by 
a profound policy is evident. He was in a minority 
in Council. It was possible that he might long be in 
a minority. He knew the native character well. He 
knew in what abundance accusations are certain to 
flow in against the most innocent inhabitant of India 
who is under the frown of power. There was not in 
the whole black population of Bengal a place-holder, 
a place-hunter, a government tenant, who did not 
think that he might better himself by sending up a 
deposition against the Governor-General. Under these 
circumstances, the persecuted statesman resolved to 
teach the whole crew of accusers and witnesses that, 
though in a minority at the council-board, he was 
still to be feared. The lesson which he gave them was 
indeed a lesson not to be forgotten. The head of the 
combination which had been formed against him, the 
richest, the most powerful, the most artful of the Hin- 
doos, distinguished by the favor of those who then 
held the government, fenced round by the supersti- 
tious reverence of millions, was hanged in broad day 
before many thousands of people. Everything that 
could make the warning impressive, dignity in the suf- 
ferer, solemnity in the proceeding, was found in this 
case. The helpless rage and vain struggles of the Coun- 
cil made the triumph more signal. From that moment 
the conviction of every native was that it was safer 



200 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

to take the part of Hastings in a minority than that of 
Francis in a majority, and that he who was so ventur- 
ous as to join in running down the Governor-General 
might chance, in the phrase of the Eastern poet, to 
find a tiger, while beating the jungle for a deer. The 
voices of a thousand informers were silenced in an in- 
stant. From that time, whatever difficulties Hastings 
might have to encounter, he was never molested by 
accusations from natives of India. 

It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the let- 
ters of Hastings to Dr. Johnson bears date a very few 
hours after the death of Nuncomar. While the whole 
settlement was in commotion, while a mighty and an- 
cient priesthood were weeping over the remains of 
their chief, the conqueror in that deadly grapple sat 
down, with characteristic self-possession, to write about 
the Tour to the Hebrides, Jones's Persian Grammar,^ 
and the history, traditions, arts, and natural produc- 
tions of India. 

In the meantime, intelligence of the Rohilla war, 
and of the first disputes between Hastings and his 
colleagues, had reached London. The Directors took 
part with the majority, and sent out a letter filled 
with severe reflections on the conduct of Hastings. 
They condemned, in strong but just terms, the iniquity 
of undertaking offensive wars merely for the sake of 
pecuniary advantage. But they entirely forgot that, 
if Hastings had by illicit means obtained pecuniary 
advantages, he had done so, not for his own benefit, 
but in order to meet their demands. To enjoin hon- 



WARREN HASTINGS 201 

esty, and to insist on having what could not be honestly 
got, was then the constant practice of the Company. 
As Lady Macbeth says of her husband, they "would 
not play false, and yet would wrongly win. " 

The Regulating Act, by which Hastings had been 
appointed Governor-General for five years, empowered 
the Crown to remove him on an address from the 
Company. Lord North ^ was desirous to procure such 
an address. The three members of Council who had 
been sent out from England were men of his own 
choice. General Clavering, in particular, was sup- 
ported by a large parliamentary connection, such as 
no cabinet could be inclined to disoblige. The wish 
of the minister was to displace Hastings, and to put 
Clavering at the head of the government. In the 
Court of Directors parties were very nearly balanced. 
Eleven voted against Hastings; ten for him. The 
Court of Proprietors was then convened. The great 
sale-room presented a sin^'ular appearance. Letters 
had been sent by the Secretary of the Treasury, ex- 
horting all the supporters of government who held 
India stock to be in attendance. Lord Sandwich 
marshalled the friends of the administration with his 
usual dexterity and alertness. Fifty peers and privy 
councillors, seldom seen so far eastward, were counted 
in the crowd. The debate lasted till midnight. The 
opponents of Hastings had a small superiority on the 
division; but a ballot was demanded; and the result 
was that the Governor-General triumphed by a ma- 
jority of above a hundred votes over the combined 



202 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

efforts of the Directors and the Cabinet. The minis- 
ters were greatly exasperated by this defeat. Even 
Lord North lost his temper, no ordinary occurrence 
with him, and threatened to convoke Parliament be- 
fore Christmas, and to bring in a bill for depriving the 
Company of all political power, and for restricting 
it to its old business of trading in silks and teas. 

Colonel Macleane, who through all this conflict had 
zealously supported the cause of Hastings, now thought 
that his employer was in imminent danger of being 
turned out, branded with parliamentary censure, per- 
haps prosecuted. The opinion of the crown lawyers 
had already been taken respecting some parts of the 
Governor-GeneraFs conduct. It seemed to be high 
time to think of securing an honorable retreat. Under 
these circumstances, Macleane thought himself justified 
in producing the resignation with which he had been 
entrusted. The instrument was not in very accurate 
form; but the Directors were too eager to be scrupulous. 
They accepted the resignation, fixed on Mr. Wheler, 
one of their own body, to succeed Hastings, and sent 
out orders that General Clavering, as senior member of 
Council, should exercise the functions of Governor- 
General till Mr. Wheler should arrive. 

But, while these things were passing in England, 
a great change had taken place in Bengal. Monson 
was no more. Only four members of the government 
were left. Clavering and Francis were on one side, 
Barwell and the Governor-General on the other; and 
the Governor-General had. the casting vote. Hastings, 



WARREN HASTINGS 203 

who had been during two years destitute of all power 
and patronage, became at once absolute. He instantly 
proceeded to retaliate on his adversaries. Their meas- 
ures were reversed: their creatures were displaced. A 
new valuation of the lands of Bengal, for the purpose 
of taxation, was ordered: and it was provided that the 
whole inquiry should be conducted by the Governor- 
General, and that all the letters relating to it should 
run in his name. He began, at the same time, to revolve 
vast plans of conquest and dominion, plans which he 
lived to see realized, though not by himself. His pro- 
ject was to form subsidiary alliances with the native 
princes, particularly with those of Oude and Berar, and 
thus to make Britain the paramount power in India. 
While he was meditating these great designs, arrived 
the intelligence that he had ceased to be Governor- 
General, that his resignation had been accepted, that 
Wheler was coming out immediately, and that, till 
Wheler arrived, the chair was to be filled by Clavering. 
Had Hastings still been in a minority, he would 
probably have retired without a struggle; but he was 
now the real master of British India, and he was not 
disposed to quit his high place. He asserted that he 
had never given any instructions which could warrant 
the steps taken at home. What his instructions had 
been, he owned he had forgotten. If he had kept a 
copy of them he had mislaid it. But he was certain 
that he had repeatedly declared to the Directors that 
he would not resign. He could not see how the court, 
possessed of that declaration from himself, could re- 



204 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

ceive his resignation from the doubtful hands of an 
agent. If the resignation were invahd, all the proceed- 
ings which were founded on that resignation were null, 
and Hastings was still Governor-General. 

He afterwards affirmed that, though his agents had 
not acted in conformity with his instructions, he would 
nevertheless have held himself bound by their acts, if 
Clavering had not attempted to seize the supreme 
power by violence. Whether this assertion were or 
were not true, it cannot be doubted that the impru- 
dence of Clavering gave Hastings an advantage. The 
General sent for the keys of the fort and of the treasury, 
took possession of the records, and held a council at 
which Francis attended. Hastings took the chair in 
another apartment, and Barwell sat with him. Each 
of the two parties had a plausible show of right. There 
was no authority entitled to their obedience within 
fifteen thousand miles. It seemed that there remained 
no way of settling the dispute except an appeal to arms; 
and from such an appeal Hastings, confident of his in- 
fluence over his countrymen in India, was not inclined 
to shrink. He directed the officers of the garrison at 
Fort William and of all the neighboring stations to 
obey no orders but his. At the same time, with ad- 
mirable judgment, he offered to submit the case to the 
Supreme Court, and to abide by its decision. By mak- 
ing this proposition he risked nothing; yet it was a prop- 
osition which his opponents could hardly reject. No- 
body could be treated as a criminal for obeying what 
the judges should solemnly pronounce to be the lawful 



WARREN HASTINGS 205 

government. The boldest man would shrink from tak- 
ing arms in defence of what the judges should pronounce 
to be usurpation. Clavering and Francis, after some 
delay, unwillingly consented to abide by the award of 
the court. The court pronounced that the resigna- 
tion was invalid, and that therefore Hastings was still 
Governor-General under the Regulating Act; and the 
defeated members of the Council, finding that the sense 
of the whole settlement was against them, acquiesced 
in the decision. 

About this time arrived the news that, after a suit 
which had lasted several years, the Franconian courts 
had decreed a divorce between Imhoff and his wife. 
The Baron left Calcutta, carrying with him the means 
of buying an estate in Saxony. The lady became Mrs. 
Hastings. - The event was celebrated by great fes- 
tivities; and all the most conspicuous persons at Cal- 
cutta, without distinction of parties, were invited to the 
Government-house. Clavering, as the Mohammedan 
chronicler tells the story, was sick in mind and body, 
and excused himself from joining the splendid assembly. 
But Hastings, whom, as it should seem, success in 
ambition and in love had put into high good-humor, 
would take no denial. He went himself to the General's 
house, and at length brought his vanquished rival in 
triumph to the gay circle which surrounded the bride. 
The exertion was too much for a frame broken by mor- 
tification as well as by disease. Clavering died a few 
days later. 

Wheler, who came out expecting to be Governor- 



206 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

General, and was forced to content himself with a seat 
at the council-board, generally voted with Francis. 
But the Governor-General, with BarwelFs help and 
his own casting vote, was still the master. Some change 
took place at this time in the feeling both of the Court 
of Directors and of the Ministers of the Crown. All de- 
signs against Hastings were dropped; and, when his 
original term of five years expired, he was quietly re- 
appointed. The truth is, that the fearful dangers to 
which the public interests in every quarter were now 
exposed, made both Lord North and the Company un- 
willing to part with a Governor whose talents, experi- 
ence, and resolution, enmity itself was compelled to 
acknowledge. 

The crisis was indeed formidable. The great and 
victorious empire, on the throne of which George the 
Third had taken his seat eighteen years before, with 
brighter hopes than had attended the accession of any 
of the long line of English sovereigns, had, by the most 
senseless misgovernment, been brought to the verge of 
ruin. In America millions of Englishmen were at war 
with the country from which their blood, their lan- 
guage, their religion, and their institutions were de- 
rived, and to which, but a short time before, they had 
been as strongly attached as the inhabitants of Nor- 
folk and Leicestershire. The great powers of Europe, 
humbled to the dust by the vigor and genius which had 
guided the councils of George the Second, now rejoiced 
in the prospect of a signal revenge. The time was ap- 
proaching when our island, while struggling to keep 



WARREN HASTINGS 207 

down the United States of America, and pressed with 
a still nearer danger by the too just discontents of Ire- 
land, was to be assailed by France, Spain, and Holland, 
and to be threatened by the armed neutrality of the 
Baltic; when even our maritime supremacy was to be 
in jeopardy; when hostile fleets were to command the 
Straits of Calpe and the Mexican Sea; when the British 
flag was to be scarcely able to protect the British 
Channel. Great as were the faults of Hastings, it was 
happy for our country that at that conjuncture, the 
most terrible through which she has ever passed, he 
was the ruler of her Indian dominions. 

An attack by sea on Bengal was little to be appre- 
hended. The danger was that the European enemies 
of England might form an alliance with some native 
power, might furnish that power with troops, arms, 
and ammunition, and might thus assail our posses- 
sions on the side of the land. It was chiefly from the 
Mahrattas that Hastings anticipated danger. The orig- 
inal seat of that singular people was the wild range of 
hills which runs along the western coast of India. In 
the reign of Aurungzebe the inhabitants of those re- 
gions, led by the great Sevajee, began to descend on 
the possessions of their wealthier and less warlike neigh- 
bors. The energy, ferocity, and cunning of the Mah- 
rattas, soon made them the most conspicuous among 
the new powers which were generated by the corrup- 
tion of the decaying monarchy. At first they were 
only robbers. They soon rose to the dignity of con- 
querors. Half the provinces of the empire were turned 



208 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

into Mahratta principalities. Freebooters, sprung from 
low castes, and accustomed to menial employments, 
became mighty Rajahs. The Bonslas, at the head of 
a band of plunderers, occupied the vast region of Berar. 
The Guicowar, which is, being interpreted, the Herds- 
men, founded that dynasty which still reigns in Guz- 
erat. The houses of Scindia and Holkar waxed great 
in Malwa. One adventurous captain made his nest on 
the impregnable rock of Gooti. Another became the 
lord of the thousand villages which are scattered among 
the green rice-fields of Tanjore. 

That was the time, throughout India, of double gov- 
ernment. The form and the power were everywhere 
separated. The Mussulman nabobs who had become 
sovereign princes, the Vizier in Oude, and the Nizam 
at Hyderabad, still called themselves the viceroys of 
the house of Tamerlane. In the same manner the 
Mahratta states, though really independent of each 
other, pretended to be members of one empire. They 
all acknowledged, by words and ceremonies, the su- 
premacy of the heir of Sevajee, a roi faineant who 
chewed bang and toyed with dancing girls in a state 
prison at Sattara, and of his Peshwa or mayor of the 
palace,^ a great hereditary magistrate, who kept a court 
with kingly state at Poonah, and whose authority was 
obeyed in the spacious provinces of Aurungabad and 
Bejapoor. 

Some months before war was declared in Europe the 
government of Bengal was alarmed by the news that a 
French adventurer, who passed for a man of quality^ 



WARREN HASTINGS 209 

had arrived at Poonah. It was said that he had been 
received there with great distinction, that he had de- 
livered to the Peshwa letters and presents from Lewis 
the Sixteenth, and that a treaty, hostile to England, 
had been concluded between France and theMahrattas.^ 

Hastings immediately resolved to strike the first 
blow. The title of the Peshwa was not undisputed. 
A portion of the Mahratta nation was favorable to a 
pretender. The Governor-General determined to 
espouse this pretender's interest, to move an army 
across the peninsular of India, and to form a close al- 
liance with the chief of the house of Bonsla, who ruled 
Berar, and who, in power and dignity, was inferior to 
none of the Mahratta princes. 

The army had marched, and the negotiations with 
Berar were in progress, when a letter from the English 
consul at Cairo brought the news that war had been 
proclaimed both in London and Paris. All the meas- 
ures which the crisis required were adopted by Hast- 
ings without a moment's delay. The French factories 
in Bengal were seized. Orders were sent to Madras 
that Pondicherry should instantly be occupied. Near 
Calcutta, works were thrown up which were thought 
to render the approach of a hostile force impossible. 
A maritime establishment was formed for the defence 
of the river. Nine new battalions of sepoys were raised, 
and a corps of native artillery was formed out of the 
hardy Lascars of the Bay of Bengal. Having made 
these arrangements, the Governor-General with calm 
confidence pronounced his presidency secure from all 



210 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

attack, unless the Mahrattas should march against it 
in conjunction with the French. 

The expedition which Hastings had sent westward 
was not so speedily or completely successful as most 
of his undertakings. The commanding officer pro- 
crastinated. The authorities at Bombay blundered. 
But the Governor-General persevered. A new com- 
mander repaired the errors of his predecessor. Several 
brilliant actions spread the military renown of the Eng- 
lish through regions where no European flag had ever 
been seen. It is probable that, if a new and more for- 
midable danger had not compelled Hastings to change 
his whole policy, his plans respecting the Mahratta em- 
pire would have been carried into complete effect. 

The authorities in England had wisely sent out to 
Bengal, as commander of the forces and member of the 
Council, one of the most distinguished soldiers of that 
time. Sir Eyre Coote had, many years before, been 
conspicuous among the founders of the British empire 
in the East. At the council of war which preceded the 
battle of Plassey, he earnestly recommended, in op- 
position to the majority, that daring course which, 
after some hesitation, was adopted, and which was 
crowned with such splendid success. He subsequently 
commanded in the south of India against the brave 
and unfortunate Lally,^ gained the decisive battle of 
Wandewash over the French and their native allies, 
took Pondicherry, and made the English power supreme 
in the Carnatic. Since those great exploits near twenty 
years had elapsed, Coote had no longer the bodily ac- 



WARREN HASTINGS 211 

tivity which he had shown in earKer days; nor was the 
vigor of his mind altogether unimpaired. He was ca- 
pricious and fretful, and required much coaxing to 
keep him in good-humor. It must, we fear, be added 
that the love of money had grown upon him, and that 
he thought more about his allowances, and less about 
his duties, than might have been expected from so 
eminent a member of so noble a profession. Still he 
was perhaps the ablest officer that was then to be found 
in the British army. Among the native soldiers his 
name was great and his influence unrivalled. Nor is he 
yet forgotten by them. Now and then a white-bearded 
old sepoy may still be found, who loves to talk of Porto 
Novo and Pollilore. It is but a short time since one of 
those aged men came to present a memorial to an Eng- 
lish officer, who holds one of the highest employments 
in India. A print of Coote hung in the room. The vet- 
eran recognized at once that face and figure which he 
had not seen for more than half a century, and, for- 
getting his salam to the living, halted, drew himself up, 
lifted his hand, and with solemn reverence paid his 
military obeisance to the dead. 

Coote, though he did not, like Barwell, vote con- 
stantly with the Governor-General, was by no means 
inclined to join in systematic opposition, and on most 
questions concurred with Hastings, who did his best, 
by assiduous courtship, and by readily granting the 
most exorbitant allowances, to gratify the strongest 
passions of the old soldier. 

It seemed likely at this time that a general recon- 



212 MA CA ULA Y'S ESS A Y 

ciliation would put an end to the quarrels which had, 
during some years, weakened and disgraced the gov- 
ernment of Bengal. The dangers of the empire might 
well induce men of patriotic feeling, — and of patri- 
otic feeling neither Hastings nor Francis was desti- 
tute, — to forget private enmities, and to co-operate 
heartily for the general good. Coote had never been 
concerned in faction. Wheler was thoroughly tired of 
it. Barwell had made an ample fortune, and, though 
he had promised that he would not leave Calcutta while 
his help was needed in Council, was most desirous to re- 
turn to England, and exerted himself to promote an 
arrangement which would set him at liberty. 

A compact was made, by which Francis agreed to 
desist from opposition, and Hastings engaged that the 
friends of Francis should be admitted to a fair share 
of the honors and emoluments of the service. During 
a few months after this treaty there was apparent har- 
mony at the council-board. 

Harmony, indeed, was never more necessary; for 
at this moment internal calamities, more formidable 
than war itself, menaced Bengal. The authors of the 
Regulating Act of 1773 had established two independ- 
ent powers, the one judicial, the other political; and, 
with a carelessness scandalously common in English 
legislation, had omitted to define the limits of either. 
The judges took advantage of the indistinctness, and 
attempted to draw to themselves supreme authority, 
not only within Calcutta, but through the whole of the 
great territory subject to the Presidency of Fort Wil- 



WARREN HASTINGS 213 

Ham. There are few Englishmen who will not admit 
that the English law, in spite of modern improvements, 
is neither so cheap nor so speedy ^ as might be wished. 
Still, it is a system which has grown up among us. 
In some points, it has been fashioned to suit our feel- 
ings; in others, it has gradually fashioned our feel- 
ings to suit itself. Even to its worst evils we are ac- 
customed; and therefore, though we may complain of 
them, they do not strike us with the horror and dismay 
which would be produced by a new grievance of smaller 
severity. In India the case is widely different. Eng- 
lish law, transplanted to that country, has all the vices 
from which we suffer here; it has them all in a far 
higher degree; and it has other vices, compared with 
which the worst vices from which we suffer are trifles. 
Dilatory here, it is far more dilatory in a land where the 
help of an interpreter is needed by every judge and by 
every advocate. Costly here, it is far more costly in a 
land into which the legal practitioners must be im- 
ported from an immense distance. All English labor 
in India, from the labor of the Governor-General and 
the Commander-in-Chief, down to that of a groom or a 
watchmaker, must be paid for at a higher rate than at 
home. No man will be banished, and banished to the 
torrid zone, for nothing. The rule holds good with re- 
spect to the legal profession. No English barrister will 
work, fifteen thousand miles from all his friends, with 
the thermometer at ninety-six in the shade, for the 
emoluments which will content him in chambers that 
overlook the Thames. Accordingly, the fees at Cal- 



214 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

cutta are about three times as great as the fees of West- 
minster Hall; and this, though the people of India are, 
beyond all comparison, poorer than the people of Eng- 
land. Yet the delay and the expense, grievous as they 
are, form the smallest part of the evil which English 
law, imported without modifications into India, could 
not fail to produce. The strongest feelings of our na- 
ture, honor, religion, female modesty, rose up against 
the innovation. Arrest on mesne process was the first 
step in most civil proceedings; and to a native of rank 
arrest was not merely a restraint, but a foul personal in- 
dignity. Oaths were required in every stage of every 
suit; and the feeling of a Quaker about an oath is hardly 
stronger than that of a respectable native. That the 
apartments of a woman of quality should be entered by 
strange men, or that her face should be seen by them, 
are, in the East, intolerable outrages, outrages which 
are more dreaded than death, and which can be ex- 
piated only by the shedding of blood. To these out- 
rages the most distinguished families of Bengal, Bahar, 
and Orissa, were now exposed. Imagine what the 
state of our own country would be, if a jurisprudence 
were on a sudden introduced among us, which should 
be to us what our jurisprudence was to our Asiatic sub- 
jects. Imagine what the state of our country would 
be, if it were enacted that any man, by merely swear- 
ing that a debt was due to him, should acquire a right 
to insult the persons of men of the most honorable and 
sacred callings and of w^omen of the most shrinking 
delicacy, to horsewhip a general officer, to put a bishop 



WARREN HASTINGS 215 

in the stocks, to treat ladies in the way which called 
forth the blow of Wat Tyler. Something like this was 
the effect of the attempt which the Supreme Court 
made to extend its jurisdiction over the whole of the 
Company's territory. 

A reign of terror began, of terror heightened by mys- 
tery; for even that which was endured was less horrible 
than that which was anticipated. No man knew what 
was next to be expected from this strange tribunal. It 
came from beyond the black water, as the people of 
India, with mysterious horror, call the sea. It con- 
sisted of judges not one of whom was familiar with the 
usages of the millions over whom they claimed bound- 
less authority. Its records were kept in unknown char- 
acters; its sentences were pronounced in unknown 
sounds. It had already collected round itself an army 
of the worst part of the native population, informers, 
and false witnesses, and common barrators, and agents 
of chicane, and above all, a banditti of bailiffs' followers, 
compared with whom the retainers of the worst Eng- 
lish spunging-houses, in the worst times, might be con- 
sidered as upright and tender-hearted. Many natives, 
highly considered among their countrymen, were seized, 
hurried up to Calcutta, flung into the common gaol, 
not for any crime even imputed, not for any debt that 
had been proved, but merely as a precaution till their 
cause should come to trial. There were instances in 
which men of the most venerable dignity, persecuted 
without a cause by extortioners, died of rage and shame 
in the grip of the vile alguazils -^ of Impey. The harems 



216 MACAULATS ESSAY 

of noble Mahommedans, sanctuaries respected in the 
East by governments which respected nothing else, 
were burst open by gangs of bailiffs. The Mussulmans, 
braver and less accustomed to submission than the 
Hindoos, sometimes stood on their defence; and there 
were instances in which they shed their blood in the 
doorway, while defending, sword in hand, the sacred 
apartments of their women. Nay, it seemed as if even 
the faint-hearted Bengalee, who had crouched at the 
feet of Surajah Dowlah, who had been mute during 
the administration of Vansittart, would at length find 
courage in despair. No Mahratta invasion had ever 
spread through the province such dismay as this inroad 
of English lawyers. All the injustice of former oppres- 
sors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing 
when compared with the justice of the Supreme Court. 
Every class of the population, English and native, 
with the exception of the ravenous pettifoggers who 
fattened on the misery and terror of an immense com- 
munity, cried out loudly against this fearful oppres- 
sion. But the judges were immovable. If a bailiff 
was resisted, they ordered the soldiers to be called 
out. If a servant of the Company, in conformity with 
the orders of the government, withstood the miserable 
catchpoles who, with Impey's writs in their hands, 
exceeded the insolence and rapacity of gang-robbers, 
he was flung into prison for a contempt. The lapse 
of sixty years, the virtue and wisdom of many eminent 
magistrates who have during that time administered 
justice in the Supreme Court, have not effaced from 



WARREN HASTINGS 217 

the minds of the people of Bengal the recollection of 
those evil days. 

The members of the government were, on this sub- 
ject, united as one man. Hastings had courted the 
judges, he had found them useful instruments; but 
he was not disposed to make them his own masters, 
or the masters of India. His mind was large; his knowl- 
edge of the native character most accurate. He saw 
that the system pursued by the Supreme Court was 
degrading to the government and ruinous to the people ; 
and he resolved to oppose it manfully. The conse- 
quence was, that the friendship, if that be the proper 
word for such a connection, which had existed be- 
tween him and Impey, was for a time completely dis- 
solved. The government placed itself firmly between 
the tyrannical tribunal and the people. The Chief Jus- 
tice proceeded to the wildest excesses. The Governor- 
General and all the members of Council were served 
with writs, calling on them to appear before the King 's 
justices, and to answer for their public acts. This was 
too much. Hastings, with just scorn, refused to obey 
the call, set at liberty the persons wrongfully detained 
by the Court, and took measures for resisting the out- 
rageous proceedings of the sheriffs' officers, if neces- 
sary, by the sword. But he had in view another de- 
vice which might prevent the necessity of an appeal to 
arms. He was seldom at a loss for an expedient; and 
he knew Impey well. The expedient, in this case, was 
a very simple one, neither more nor less than a bribe. 
Impey was, by act of Parliament, a judge, independ- 



218 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

ent of the government of Bengal, and entitled to a 
salary of eight thousand a year. Hastings proposed 
to make him also a judge in the Company's service, 
removable at the pleasure of the government of Ben- 
gal; and to give him, in that capacity, about eight 
thousand a year more. It was understood that, in 
consideration of this new salary, Impey would desist 
from urging the high pretensions of his Court. If he 
did urge these pretensions, the government could, at 
a moment's notice, eject him from the new place 
which had been created for him. The bargain was 
struck; Bengal was saved; an appeal to force was 
averted; and the Chief Justice was rich, quiet, and 
infamous.^ 

Of Impey's conduct it is unnecessary to speak. It 
was of a piece with almost every part of his conduct 
that comes under the notice of history. No other 
such judge has dishonored the English ermine, since 
Jeffreys ^ drank himself to death in the Tower. But 
we cannot agree with those who have blamed Hastings 
for this transaction. The case stood thus. The negli- 
gent manner in which the Regulating Act ^ had been 
framed put it in the power of the Chief Justice to 
throw a great country into the most dreadful confu- 
sion. He was determined to use his power to the ut- 
most, unless he was paid to be still; and Hastings con- 
sented to pay him. The necessity was to be deplored. 
It is also to be deplored that pirates should be able to 
exact ransom, by threatening to make their captives 
walk the plank. But to ransom a captive from pirates 



WARREN HASTINGS 219 

has always been held a humane and Christian act; and 
it would be absurd to charge the payer of the ransom 
with corrupting the virtue of the corsair. This, we 
seriously think, is a not unfair illustration of the rela- 
tive position of Impey, Hastings, and the people of 
India. Whether it was right in Impey to demand or 
to accept a price for powers which, if they really be- 
longed to him, he could not abdicate, which, if they 
did not belong to him, he ought never to have usurped, 
and which in neither case he could honestly sell, is one 
question. It is quite another question, whether Has- 
tings was not right to give any sum, however large, to 
any man, however worthless, rather than either sur- 
render millions of human beings to pillage, or rescue 
them by civil war. 

Francis strongly opposed this arrangement. It may, 
indeed, be suspected that personal aversion to Impey 
was as strong a motive with Francis as regard for the 
welfare of the province. To a mind burning with 
resentment, it might seem better to leave Bengal to 
the oppressors than to redeem it by enriching them. 
It is not improbable, on the other hand, that Hastings 
may have been the more willing to resort to an expe- 
dient agreeable to the Chief Justice, because that high 
functionary had already been so serviceable, and might, 
when existing dissensions were composed, be service- 
able again. 

But it was not on this point alone that Francis was 
now opposed to Hastings. The peace between them 
proved to be only a short and hollow truce, during 



220 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

which their mutual aversion was constantly becoming 
stronger. At length an explosion took place. Hast- 
ings publicly charged Francis with having deceived 
him, and with having induced Barwell to quit the ser- 
vice by insincere promises. Then came a dispute, such 
as frequently arises even between honorable men when 
they may make important agreements by mere ver- 
bal communication. An impartial historian will prob- 
ably be of the opinion that they had misunderstood 
each other; but their minds were so much embittered 
that they imputed to each other nothing less than de- 
liberate villainy. "I do not," said Hastings, in a min- 
ute recorded on the Consultations of the Government, 
"I do not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of candor, 
convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of his pub- 
lic conduct by his private, which I have found to be 
void of truth and honor. " After the Council had risen, 
Francis put a challenge into the Governor-GeneraPs 
hand. It was instantly accepted. They met, and fired. 
Francis was shot through the body. He was carried 
to a neighboring house, where it appeared that the 
wound, though severe, was not mortal. Hastings in- 
quired repeatedly after his enemy's health, and pro- 
posed to call on him; but Francis coldly declined the 
visit. He had a proper sense, he said, of the Governor- 
General's politeness, but could not consent to any pri- 
vate interview. They could meet only at the council- 
board. 

In a very short time it was made signally manifest 
to how great a danger the Governor-General had, on 



WARREN HASTINGS 221 

this occasion, exposed his country, A crisis arrived 
with which he, and he alone, was competent to deal. 
It is not too much to say that, if he had been taken 
from the head of affairs, the years 1780 and 1781 
would have been as fatal to our power in Asia as to 
our power in America. 

The Mahrattas had been the chief objects of appre- 
hension to Hastings. The measures which he had 
adopted for the purpose of breaking their power, had 
at first been frustrated by the errors of those whom 
he was compelled to employ; but his perseverance 
and ability seemed likely to be crowned with success, 
when a far more formidable danger ^ showed itself in a 
distant quarter. 

About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan 
soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars 
of Southern India. His education had been neglected; 
his extraction was humble. His father had been a 
petty officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering 
dervise. But though thus meanly descended, though 
ignorant even of the alphabet, the adventurer had no 
sooner been placed at the head of a body of troops 
than he approved himself a man born for conquest 
and command. Among the crowd of chiefs who were 
struggling for a share of India, none could compare 
with him in the qualities of the captain and the states- 
man. He became a general; he became a sovereign. 
Out of the fragments of old principalities, which had 
gone to pieces in the general wreck, he formed for 
himself a great, compact, and vigorous empire. That 



222 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

empire he ruled with the ability, severity, and vigilance 
of Lewis the Eleventh.^ Licentious in his pleasures, 
implacable in his revenge, he had yet enlargement 
of mind enough to perceive how much the prosperity 
of subjects adds to the strength of governments. He 
was an oppressor; but he had at least the merit of 
protecting his people against all oppression except his 
own. He was now in extreme old age; but his intellect 
was as clear, and his spirit as high, as in the prime 
of manhood. Such was the great Hyder Ali, the 
founder of the Mahommedan kingdom of Mysore, and 
the most formidable enemy ^ with whom the English 
conquerors of India have ever had to contend. 

Had Hastings been governor of Madras, Hyder 
would have been either made a friend, or vigorously 
encountered as an enemy. Unhappily the English au-. 
thorities in the south provoked their powerful neigh- 
bor's hostility, without being prepared to repel it. On 
a sudden, an army of ninety thousand men, far supe- 
rior in discipline and efficiency to any other native force 
that could be found in India, came pouring through 
those wild passes which, worn by mountain torrents, 
and dark with jungle, lead down from the table-land 
of Mysore to the plains of the Carnatic. This great 
army was accompanied by a hundred pieces of cannon; 
and its movements were guided by many French of- 
ficers, trained in the best military schools of Europe. 

Hyder was everywhere triumphant. The sepoys in 
many British garrisons flung down their arms. Some 
forts were surrendered by treachery and some by de- 



WARREN HASTINGS 223 

spair. In a few days the whole open country north of 
the Coleroon had submitted. The English inhabitants 
of Madras could already see by night, from the top of 
Mount St. Thomas, the western sky reddened by a vast 
semicircle of blazing villages. The white villas, to 
which our countrymen retire after the daily labors of 
government and of trade, when the cool evening breeze 
springs up from the bay, were now left without inhab- 
itants; for bands of the fierce horsemen of Mysore had 
already been seen prowling among the tulip-trees and 
near the gay verandas. Even the town was not 
thought secure, and the British merchants and public 
functionaries made haste to crowd themselves behind 
the cannon of Fort St. George. 

There were the means, indeed, of assembling an 
army which might have defended the presidency, and 
even driven the invader back to his mountains. Sir 
Hector Munro was at the head of one considerable 
force; Baillie was advancing with another. United, 
they might have presented a formidable front even 
to such an enemy as Hyder. But the English com- 
manders, neglecting those fundamental rules of the 
military art of which the propriety is obvious even to 
men who have never received a military education, 
deferred their junction, and were separately attacked. 
Baillie's detachment was destroyed. Munro was forced 
to abandon his baggage, to fling his guns into the tanks, 
and to save himself by a retreat which might be called 
a flight. In three weeks from the commencement of 
the war, the British empire in Southern India had been 



224 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

brought to the verge of ruin. Only a few fortified 
places remained to us. The glory of our arms had de- 
parted. It was known that a great French expedition 
might soon be expected on the coast of Coromandel. 
England; beset by enemies on every side, was in no con- 
dition to protect such remote dependencies. 

Then it was that the fertile genius and serene cour- 
age of Hastings achieved their most signal triumph. 
A swift ship, flying before the south-west monsoon, 
brought the evil tidings in few days to Calcutta. In 
twenty-four hours the Governor-General had framed 
a complete plan of policy adapted to the altered state 
of affairs. The struggle with Hyder was a struggle 
for life and death. All minor objects must be sacri- 
ficed to the preservation of the Carnatic. The disputes 
with the Mahrattas must be accommodated. A large 
military force and a supply of money must be instantly 
sent to Madras. But even these measures would be 
insufficient, unless the war, hitherto so grossly mis- 
managed, were placed under the direction of a vigorous 
mind. It was no time for trifling. Hastings determined 
to resort to an extreme exercise of power, to suspend 
the incapable governor of Fort St. George, to send Sir 
Eyre Coote to oppose Hyder, and to intrust that dis- 
tinguished general with the whole administration of 
the war. 

In spite of the sullen opposition of Francis, who had 
now recovered from his wound, and had returned to 
the Council, the Governor-General's wise and firm 
policy was approved by the majority of the board. The 



WARREN HASTINGS 225 

reinforcements were sent off with great expedition, and 
reached Madras before the French armament arrived 
in the Indian seas. Coote, broken by age and disease, 
was no longer the Coote of Wandewash ; but he was still 
a resolute and skilful commander. The progress of 
Hyder was arrested; and in a few months the great vic- 
tory of Porto Novo retrieved the honor of the English 
arms. 

In the meantime Francis had returned to England, 
and Hastings was now left perfectly unfettered. Whe- 
ler had gradually been relaxing in his opposition, and, 
after the departure of his vehement and implacable col- 
league, co-operated heartily with the Governor-General, 
whose influence over the British in India, always great, 
had, by the vigor and success of his recent measures, 
been considerably increased. 

But, though the difficulties arising from factions 
within the Council were at an end, another class of 
difficulties had become more pressing than ever. The 
financial embarrassment was extreme. Hastings had 
to find the means, not only of carrying on the govern- 
ment of Bengal, but of maintaining a most costly war 
against both Indian and European enemies in the 
Carnatic, and of making remittances to England. A 
few years before this time he had obtained relief by 
plundering the Mogul and enslaving the Rohillas; nor 
were the resources of his fruitful mind by any means 
exhausted. 

His first design was on Benares, a city which in 
wealth, population, dignity, and sanctity, was among 



226 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

the foremost of Asia. It was commonly believed that 
half a million of human beings was crowded into that 
labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and minarets, 
and balconies, and carved oriels, to which the sacred 
apes clung by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely 
make his way through the press of holy mendicants and 
not less holy bulls. The broad and stately flights of 
steps which descended from these swarming haunts to 
the bathing-places along the Ganges were worn every 
day by the footsteps of an innumerable multitude of 
worshippers. The schools and temples drew crowds of 
pious Hindoos from every province where the Brah- 
minical faith was known. Hundreds of devotees came 
thither every month to die: for it was believed that 
a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should 
pass from the sacred city into the sacred river. Nor was. 
superstition the only motive which allured strangers to 
that great metropolis. Commerce had as many pil- 
grims as religion. All along the shores of the venerable 
stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich mer- 
chandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the 
most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's 
and of Versailles; and in the bazaars the muslins of 
Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the 
jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere. This 
rich capital, and the surrounding tract, had long been 
under the immediate rule of a Hindoo prince, who ren- 
dered homage to the Mogul emperors. During the great 
anarchy of India, the lords of Benares became inde- 
pendent of the court of Delhi, but were compelled to 



WARREN HASTINGS 227 

submit to the authority of the Nabob of Oude. Op- 
pressed by this formidable neighbor, they invoked the 
protection of the Enghsh. The EngHsh protection was 
given; and at length the Nabob Vizier, by a solemn 
treaty, ceded all his rights over Benares to the Com- 
pany. From that time the Rajah was the vassal of the 
government of Bengal, acknowledged its supremacy, 
and engaged to send an annual tribute to Fort William. 
This tribute Cheyte Sing, the reigning prince, had paid 
with strict punctuality. 

About the precise nature of the legal relation be- 
tween the Company and the Rajah of Benares, there 
has been much warm and acute controversy. On the 
one side, it has been maintained that Cheyte Sing was 
merely a great subject on whom the superior power had 
a right to call for aid in the necessities of the empire. 
On the other side, it has been contended that he was an 
independent prince, that the only claim which the Com- 
pany had upon him was for a fixed tribute, and that, 
while the fixed tribute was regularly paid, as it as- 
suredly was, the English had no more right to exact any 
further contribution from him than to demand sub- 
sidies from Holland or Denmark. Nothing is easier 
than to find precedents and analogies in favor of either 
view. 

Our own impression is that neither view is correct. 
It was too much the habit of English politicians to 
take it for granted that there was in India a known 
and definite constitution by which questions of this kind 
were to be decided. The truth is that, during the inter- 



228 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

val which elapsed between the fall of the house of Tam- 
erlane ^ and the establishment of the British ascend- 
ency, there was no such constitution.^ The old order 
of things had passed away; the new order of things was 
not yet formed. All was transition, confusion, obscu- 
rity. Everybody kept his head as he best might, and 
scrambled for whatever he could get. There have been 
similar seasons in Europe. The time of the dissolution 
of the Carlovingian empire is an instance. Who would 
think of seriously discussing the question, what extent 
of pecuniary aid and of obedience Hugh Capet ^ had a 
constitutional right to demand from the Duke of Brit- 
anny or the Duke of Normandy? The words ''con- 
stitutional right " had, in that state of society, no mean- 
ing. If Hugh Capet laid hands on all the possessions of 
the Duke of Normandy, this might be unjust and im- 
moral ; but it would not be illegal, in the sense in which 
the ordinances of Charles the Tenth^ were illegal. If, on 
the other hand, the Duke of Normandy made war on 
Hugh Capet, this might be unjust and immoral; but 
it would not be illegal, in the sense in which the expedi- 
tion of Prince Louis Bonaparte was illegal. 

Very similar to this the state of India sixty years ago. 
Of the existing governments not a single one could lay 
claim to legitimacy, or could plead any other title than 
recent occupation. There was scarcely a province in 
which the real sovereignty and the nominal sovereignty 
were not disjoined. Titles and forms were still retained 
which implied that the heir of Tamerlane was an abso- 
lute ruler, and that the Nabobs of the provinces were 



WARREN HASTINGS 229 

his lieutenants. In reality, he was a captive. The 
Nabobs were in some places independent princes. In 
other places, as in Bengal and the Carnatic, they had, 
like their master, become mere phantoms, and the Com- 
pany was supreme. Among the Mahrattas, again, the 
heir of Sevajee still kept the title of Rajah; but he was 
a prisoner, and his prime minister, the Peshwa, had 
become the hereditary chief of the state. The Peshwa, 
in his turn, was fast sinking into the same degraded 
situation to which he had reduced the Rajah. It was, 
we believe, impossible to find, from the Himalayas to 
Mysore, a single government which was at once a gov- 
ernment de facto and a government de jure, which 
possessed the physical means of making itself feared by 
its neighbors and subjects, and which had at the same 
time the authority derived from law and long prescrip- 
tion. 

Hastings clearly discerned, what was hidden from 
most of his contemporaries, that such a state of things 
gave immense advantages to a ruler of great talents and 
few scruples. In every international question that 
could arise, he had his option between the de facto 
ground and the de jure ground; and the probability was 
that one of those grounds would sustain any claim that 
it might be convenient for him to make, and enable him 
to resist any claim made by others. In every contro- 
versy, accordingly, he resorted to the plea which suited 
his immediate purpose, without troubling himself in 
the least about consistency; and thus he scarcely ever 
failed to find what, to persons of short meniories and 



230 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

scanty information, seemed to be a justification for 
what he wanted to do. Sometimes the Nabob of Bengal 
is a shadow, sometimes a monarch. Sometimes the 
Vizier is a mere deputy, sometimes an independent 
potentate. If it is expedient for the Company to show 
some legal title to the revenues of Bengal, the grant 
under the seal of the Mogul is brought forward as an 
instrument of the highest authority. When the Mogul 
asks for the rents which were reserved to him by that 
very grant, he is told that he is a mere pageant, that 
the English power rests on a very different foundation 
from a charter given by him, that he is welcome to play 
at royalty as long as he likes, but that he must expect no 
tribute from the real masters of India. 

It is true that it was in the power of others, as well as 
of Hastings, to practise this legerdemain; ^ but in the 
controversies of governments, sophistry is of little use 
unless it be backed by power. There is a principle 
which Hastings was fond of asserting in the strongest 
terms, and on which he acted with undeviating steadi- 
ness. It is a principle which, we must own, though it 
may be grossly abused, can hardly be disputed in the 
present state of public law. It is this, that where an 
ambiguous question arises between two governments, 
there is, if they cannot agree, no appeal except to force, 
and that the opinion of the stronger must prevail. Al- 
most every question was ambiguous in India. The 
English government was the strongest in India. The 
consequences are obvious. The English government 
might do exactly what it chose. 



WARREN HASTINGS 231 

The English government now chose to wring money 
out of. Cheyte Sing. It had formerly been convenient 
to treat him as a sovereign prince; it was now con- 
venient to treat him as a subject. Dexterity inferior 
to that of Hastings could easily jfind, in the general 
chaos of laws and customs, arguments for either course. 
Hastings wanted a great supply. It was known that 
Cheyte Sing had a large revenue, and it was suspected 
that he had accumulated a treasure. Nor was he a 
favorite at Calcutta. He had, when the Governor- 
General was in great difficulties, courted the favor of 
Francis and Clavering. Hastings who, less perhaps 
from evil passions than from policy, seldom left an in- 
jury unpunished, was not sorry that the fate of Cheyte 
Sing should teach neighboring princes the same lesson 
which the .fate of Nuncomar had already impressed on 
the inhabitants of Bengal. 

In 1778, on the first breaking out of the war with 
France, Cheyte Sing was called upon to pay, in addi- 
tion to his fixed tribute, an extraordinary contribution 
of fifty thousand pounds. In 1779, an equal sum was 
exacted. In 1780, the demand was renewed. Cheyte 
Sing, in the hope of obtaining some indulgence, se- 
cretly offered the Governor-General a bribe of twenty 
thousand pounds. Hastings took the money, and his 
enemies have maintained that he took it intending to 
keep it. He certainly concealed the transaction, for a 
time, both from the Council in Bengal and from the 
Directors at home; nor did he ever give any satisfactory 
reason for the concealment. Public spirit, or the fear 



232 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

of detection, at last determined him to withstand the 
temptation. He paid over the bribe to the Company's 
treasury, and insisted that the Rajah should instantly 
comply with the demands of the English government. 
The Rajah, after the fashion of his countrymen, shuf- 
fled, solicited, and pleaded poverty. The grasp of Hast- 
ings was not to be so eluded. He added to the requisi- 
tion another ten thousand pounds as a fine for delay, 
and sent troops to exact the money. 

The money was paid. But this was not enough. 
The late events in the south of India had increased the 
financial embarrassments of the Company. Hastings 
was determined to plunder Cheyte Sing, and, for that 
end, to fasten a quarrel on him. Accordingly, the 
Rajah was now required to keep a body of cavalry for 
the service of the British government. He objected 
and evaded. This was exactly what the Governor- 
General wanted. He had now a pretext for treating 
the wealthiest of his vassals as a criminal. "I re- 
solved," — these are the words of Hastings himself, 
— "to draw from his guilt the means of relief of the 
Company's distresses, to make him pay largely for 
his pardon, or to exact a severe vengeance for past 
delinquency." The plan was simply this, to demand 
larger and larger contributions till the Rajah should 
be driven to remonstrate, then to call his remon- 
strance a crime, and to punish him by confiscating all 
his possessions. 

Cheyte Sing was in the greatest dismay. He offered 
two hundred thousand pounds to propitiate the Brit- 



WARREN HASTINGS 233 

ish government. But Hastings replied that nothing 
less than half a million would be accepted. Nay, he 
began to think of selling Benares to Oude, as he had 
formerly sold Allahabad and Rohilcund. The matter 
was one which could not be well managed at a dis- 
tance; and Hastings resolved to visit Benares. 

Cheyte Sing received his liege lord with every mark 
of reverence, came near sixty miles, with his guards, 
to meet and escort the illustrious visitor, and ex- 
pressed his deep concern at the displeasure of the Eng- 
lish. He even took off his turban, and laid it in the 
lap of Hastings, a gesture which in India marks the 
most profound submission and devotion. Hastings 
behaved with cold and repulsive severity. Having 
arrived at Benares,^ he sent to the Rajah a paper 
containing the demands of the government of Bengal. 
The Rajah, in reply, attempted to clear himself from 
the accusations brought against him. Hastings, who 
wanted money and not excuses, was not to be put off 
by the ordinary artifices of Eastern negotiation. He 
instantly ordered the Rajah to be arrested and placed 
under the custody of two companies of sepoys. 

In taking these strong measures, Hastings scarcely 
showed his usual judgment. It is possible that, hav- 
ing had little opportunity of personally observing any 
part of the population of India, except the Bengalees, 
he was not fully aware of the difference between their 
character and that of the tribes which inhabit the 
upper pz^ovinces. He was now in a land far more fa- 
vorable to the vigor of the human frame than the Delta 



234 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

of the Ganges; in a land fruitful of soldiers, who have 
been found worthy to follow English battalions to the 
charge and into the breach. The Rajah was popu- 
lar among his subjects. His administration had been 
mild; and the prosperity of the district which he gov- 
erned presented a striking contrast to the depressed 
state of Bahar under our rule, and a still more strik- 
ing contrast to the misery of the provinces which 
were cursed by the tyranny of the Nabob Vizier. The 
national and religious prejudices with which the Eng- 
lish were regarded throughout India were peculiarly 
intense in the metropolis of the Brahminical supersti- 
tion. It can therefore scarcely be doubted that the 
Governor-General, before he outraged the dignity of 
Cheyte Sing by an arrest, ought to have assembled a 
force capable of bearing down all opposition. This 
had not been done. The handful of sepoys who at- 
tended Hastings would probably have been sufficient 
to overawe Moorshedabad, or the Black Town of Cal- 
cutta. But they were unequal to a conflict with the 
hardy rabble of Benares. The streets surrounding 
the palace were filled with an immense multitude, of 
whom a large proportion, as is usual in Upper India, 
wore arms. The tumult became a fight, and the fight 
a massacre. The English officers defended them- 
selves with desperate courage against overwhelming 
numbers, and fell, as became them, sword in hand. 
The sepoys were butchered. The gates were forced. 
The captive prince, neglected by his jailers during the 
confusion, discovered an outlet which opened on the 



WARREN HASTINGS 235 

precipitous bank of the Ganges, let himself down to 
the water by a string made of the turbans of his at- 
tendants, found a boat, and escaped to the opposite 
shore. 

If Hastings had, by indiscreet violence, brought him- 
self into a difficult and perilous situation, it is only just 
to acknowledge that he extricated himself with even 
more than his usual ability and presence of mind. 
He had only fifty men with him. The building in 
which he had taken up his residence was on every 
side blockaded by the insurgents. But his fortitude 
remained unshaken. The Rajah from the other side 
of the river sent apologies and liberal offers. They 
were not even answered. Some subtle and enterpris- 
ing men were found who undertook to pass through 
the throng of enemies, and to convey the intelligence 
of the late events to the English cantonments. It is the 
fashion of the natives of India to wear large earrings 
of gold. When they travel, the rings are laid aside, 
lest the precious metal should tempt some gang of 
robbers; and, in place of the ring, a quill or a roll 
of paper is inserted in the orifice to prevent it from 
closing. Hastings placed in the ears of his messengers 
letters rolled up in the smallest compass. Some of 
these letters were addressed to the commanders of the 
English troops. One was written to assure his wife 
of his safety. One was to the envoy whom he had 
sent to negotiate with the Mahrattas. Instructions 
for the negotiation were needed; and the Governor- 
General framed them in that situation of extreme dan- 



236 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

ger, with as much composure as if he had been writing 
in his palace at Calcutta. 

Things, however, were not yet at the worst. An 
English officer of more spirit than judgment, eager to 
distinguish himself, made a premature attack on the 
insurgents beyond the river. His troops were entan- 
gled in narrow streets, and assailed by a furious pop- 
ulation. He fell, with many of his men; and the 
survivors were forced to retire. 

This event produced the effect which has never 
failed to follow every check, however slight, sustained 
in India by the English arms. For hundreds of miles 
around, the whole country was in commotion. The 
entire population of the district of Benares took arms. 
The fields were abandoned by the husbandmen, who 
thronged to defend their prince. The infection spread 
to Oude. The oppressed people of that province rose 
up against the Nabob Vizier, refused to pay their im- 
posts, and put the revenue officers to flight. Even 
Bahar was ripe for revolt. The hopes of Cheyte Sing 
began to rise. Instead of imploring mercy in the hum- 
ble style of a vassal, he began to talk the language 
of a conqueror, and threatened, it was said, to sweep 
the white usurpers out of the land. But the English 
troops were now assembling fast. The officers, and 
even the private men, regarded the Governor-General 
with enthusiastic attachment, and flew to his aid with 
an alacrity which, as he boasted, had never been shown 
on any other occasion. Major Popham, a brave and 
skilful soldier, who had highly distinguished himself in 



WARREN HASTINGS 237 

the Mahratta war, and in whom the Governor-General 
reposed the greatest confidence, took the command. 
The tumultuary army of the Rajah was put to rout. 
His fastnesses were stormed. In a few hours, above 
thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned 
to their ordinary avocations. The unhappy prince fled 
from his country for ever. His fair domain was added 
to the British dominions. One of his relations indeed 
was appointed rajah; but the Rajah of Benares was 
henceforth to be, like the Nabob of Bengal, a mere 
pensioner. 

By this revolution, an addition of two hundred 
thousand pounds a year was made to the revenues of 
the Company. But the immediate relief was not as 
great as had been expected. The treasure laid up by 
Cheyte Sing had been popularly estimated at a million 
sterling. It turned out to be about a fourth part of 
that sum; and, such as it was, it was seized by the 
army, and divided as prize-money. 

Disappointed in his expectations from Benares, 
Hastings was more violent than he would otherwise 
have been, in his dealings with Oude. Sujah Dowlah 
had long been dead. His son and successor, Asaph-ul- 
Dowlah, was one of the weakest and most vicious even 
of Eastern princes. His life was divided between 
torpid repose and the most odious forms of sensuality. 
In his court there was boundless waste, throughout 
his dominions wretchedness and disorder. He had 
been, under the skilful management of the English 
government, gradually sinking from the rank of an 



238 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

independent prince to that of a vassal of the Company. 
It was only by the help of a British brigade that he 
could be secure from the aggressions of neighbors who 
despised his weakness, and from the vengeance of sub- 
jects who detested his tyranny. A brigade was fur- 
nished; and he engaged to defray the charge of paying 
and maintaining it. From that time his independence 
was at an end. Hastings was not a man to lose the 
advantage which he had thus gained. The Nabob soon 
began to complain of the burden which he had under- 
taken to bear. His revenues, he said, were falling 
off; his servants were unpaid; he could no longer 
support the expense of the arrangement which he had 
sanctioned. Hastings would not listen to these rep- 
resentations. The Vizier, he said, had invited the 
government of Bengal to send him troops and had 
promised to pay for them. The troops had been sent. 
How long the troops were to remain in Oude was a 
matter not settled by the treaty. It remained, there- 
fore, to be settled between the contracting parties. 
But the contracting parties differed. Who then must 
deftide? The stronger. 

Hastings also argued that, if the English force was 
withdrawn, Oude would certainly become a prey to 
anarchy, and would probably be overrun by a Mah- 
ratta army. That the finances of Oude were embar- 
rassed he admitted. But he contended, not without 
reason, that the embarrassment was to be attributed 
to the incapacity and vices of Asaph-ul-Dowlah him- 
self, and that, if less were spent on the troops, the 



WARREN HASTINGS 239 

only effect would be that more would be squandered 
on worthless favorites. 

Hastings had intended, after settling the affairs of 
Benares, to visit Lucknow, and there to confer with 
Asaph-ul-Dowlah. But the obsequious courtesy of 
the Nabob Vizier prevented this visit. With a small 
train he hastened to meet the Governor-General. An 
interview took place in the fortress which, from the 
crest of the precipitous rock of Chunar, looks down 
on the waters of the Ganges. 

At first sight it might appear impossible that the 
negotiations should come to an amicable close. Hast- 
ings wanted an extraordinary supply of money. Asaph- 
ul-Dowlah wanted to obtain a remission of what he 
already owed. Such a difference seemed to admit of 
no compromise. There was, however, one course sat- 
isfactory to both sides, one course by which it was 
possible to relieve the finances both of Oude and of 
Bengal; and that course was adopted. It was simply 
this, that the Governor General and the Nabob Vizier 
should join to rob a third party; and the third party 
whom they determined to rob was the parent of one of 
the robbers. 

The mother of the late Nabob, and his wife, who was 
the mother of the present Nabob, were known as the 
Begums or Princesses of Oude. They had possessed 
great influence over Sujah Dowlah, and had, at his 
death, been left in possession of a splendid dotation. 
The domains of which they received the rents and ad- 
ministered the government were of wide extent. The 



240 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

treasure hoarded by the late Nabob, a treasure which 
was popularly estimated at near three millions sterling, 
was in their hands. They continued to occupy his 
favorite palace at Fyzabad, the Beautiful Dwelling; 
while Asaph-ul-Dowlah held his court in the stately 
Lucknow, which he had built for himself on the shores 
of the Goomti, and had adorned with noble mosques 
and colleges. 

Asaph-ul-Dowlah had already extorted considerable 
sums from his mother. She had at length appealed to 
the English; and the English had interfered. A solemn 
compact had been made, by which she consented to 
give her son some pecuniary assistance, and he in his 
turn promised never to commit any further invasion 
of her rights. This compact was formally guaranteed 
by the government of Bengal. But times had changed; 
money was wanted ; and the power which had given the 
guarantee was not ashamed to instigate the spoiler to 
excesses such that even he shrank from them. 

It was necessary to find some pretext for a confisca- 
tion inconsistent, not merely with plighted faith, not 
merely with the ordinary rules of humanity and jus- 
tice, but also with that great law of filial piety which, 
even in the wildest tribes of savages, even in those more 
degraded communities which wither under the influ- 
ence of a corrupt half -civilization, retains a certain au- 
thority over the human mind. A pretext was the last 
thing that Hastings was likely to want. The insurrec- 
tion at Benares had produced disturbances in Oude. 
These disturbances it was convenient to impute to the 



WARREN HASTINGS 241 

Princesses. Evidence for the imputation there was 
scarcely any; unless reports wandering from one mouth 
to another, and gaining something by every transmis- 
sion, may be called evidence. The accused were fur- 
nished with no charge; they were permitted to make no 
defence; for the Governor-General wisely considered 
that, if he tried them, he might not be able to find a 
ground for plundering them. It was agreed between 
him and the Nabob Vizier that the noble ladies should, 
by a sweeping act of confiscation, be stripped of their 
domains and treasures for the benefit of the Company, 
and that the sums thus obtained should be accepted 
by the government of Bengal in satisfaction of its claims 
on the government of Oude. 

While Asaph-ul-Dowlah was at Chunar, he was 
completely subjugated by the clear and commanding 
intellect of the English statesman. But, when they 
had separated, the Vizier began to reflect with uneasi- 
ness on the engagements into which he had entered. 
His mother and grandmother protested and implored. 
His heart, deeply corrupted by absolute power and 
licentious pleasures, yet not naturally unfeeling, failed 
him in this crisis. Even the English resident at Luck- 
now, though hitherto devoted to Hastings, shrank from 
extreme measures. But the Governor-General was in- 
exorable. He wrote to the resident in terms of the 
greatest severity, and declared that, if the spoliation 
which had been agreed upon were not instantly car- 
ried into effect, he would himself go to Lucknow, and 
do that from which feebler minds recoil with dismay. 



242 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

The resident, thus menaced, waited on his Highness, 
and insisted that the treaty of Chunar should be car- 
ried into full and immediate effect. Asaph-ul-Dowlah 
yielded, making at the same time a solemn protesta- 
tion that he yielded to compulsion. The lands were 
resumed; but the treasure was not so easily obtained. 
It was necessary to use violence. A body of the Com- 
pany's troops marched to Fyzabad, and forced the 
gates of the palace. The Princesses were confined to 
their own apartments. But still they refused to submit. 
Some more stringent mode of coercion was to be found. 
A mode was found of which, even at this distance of 
time, we cannot speak without shame and sorrow. 

There were at Fyzabad two ancient men, belonging 
to that unhappy class which a practice, of immemorial 
antiquity in the East, has excluded from the pleasures 
of love and from the hope of posterity. It has always 
been held in Asiatic courts that beings thus estranged 
from sympathy with their kind are those whom princes 
may most safely trust. Suj ah Dowlah had been of this 
opinion. He had given his entire confidence to the two 
eunuchs; and after his death they remained at the head 
of the household of his widow. 

These men were, by the orders of the British govern- 
ment, seized, imprisoned, ironed, starved almost to 
death, in order to extort money from the Princesses. 
After they had been two months in confinement, their 
health gave way. They implored permission to take 
a little exercise in the garden of their prison. The 
officer who was in charge of them stated that, if they 



WARREN HASTINGS 243 

were allowed this indulgence, there was not the smallest 
chance of their escaping, and that their irons really- 
added nothing to the security of the custody in which 
they were kept. He did not understand the plan of his 
superiors. Their object in these inflictions was not 
security, but torture; and all mitigation was refused. 
Yet this was not the worst. It was resolved by an Eng- 
lish government that these two infirm old men should 
be delivered to the tormentors. For that purpose they 
were removed to Lucknow. What horrors their dun- 
geons there witnessed can only be guessed. But there 
remains on the records of Parliament, this letter, writ- 
ten by a British resident to a British soldier. 

"Sir, The Nabob having determined to inflict cor- 
poral punishment upon the prisoners under your guard, 
this is to desire that, his officers, when they shall come, 
may have free access to the prisoners, and be permitted 
to do with them as they shall see proper." 

While these barbarities w^ere perpetrated at Luck- 
now, the Princesses were still under duress at Fyzabad. 
Food was allowed to enter their apartments only in such 
scaMy quantities that their female attendants were in 
danger of perishing with hunger. Month after month 
this cruelty continued, till at length, after twelve hun- 
dred thousand pounds had been wrung out of the 
Princesses, Hastings began to think that he had really 
got to the bottom of their coffers, and that no rigor 
could extort more. Then at length the wretched men 
who were detained at Lucknow regained their liberty. 
When their irons were knocked off, and the doors of 



244 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

their prisons opened, their quivering lips, the tears 
which ran down their cheeks, and the thanksgivings 
which they poured forth to the common Father of 
Mussulmans and Christians, melted even the stout 
hearts of the English warriors who stood by. 

But we must not forget to do justice to Sir Elijah 
Impey's conduct on this occasion. It was not indeed 
easy for him to intrude himself into a business so en- 
tirely alien from all his official duties. But there was 
something inexpressibly alluring, we must suppose, in 
the peculiar rankness of the infamy whicli was then to 
be got at Lucknow. He hurried thither as fast as re- 
lays of palanquin-bearers could carry him. A crowd of 
people came before him with affidavits against the Be- 
gums, ready drawn in their hands. Those affidavits he 
did not read. Some of them, indeed, he could not read; 
for they were in the dialects of Northern India, and no 
interpreter was etnployed. He administered the oath 
to the deponents with all possible expedition, and asked 
not a single question, not even whether they had pe- 
rused the statements to which they swore. This work 
performed, he got again into his palanquin, and posted 
back to Calcutta, to be in time for the opening of term. 
The cause was one which, by his own confession, lay 
altogether out of his jurisdiction. Under the charter of 
justice, he had no more right to inquire into crimes 
committed by Asiatics in Oude than the Lord Presi- 
dent of the Court of Session of Scotland to hold an 
assize at Exeter. He had no right to try the Begums, 
nor did he pretend to try them. With what object, 



WARREN HASTINGS 245 

then, did he undertake so long a journey? Evidently 
in order that he might give, in an irregular manner, the 
sanction which in a regular manner he could not give, 
to the crimes of those who had recently hired him ; and 
in order that a confused mass of testimony which he 
did not sift, which he did not even read, might acquire 
an authority not properly belonging to it, from the 
signature of the highest judicial functionary in India. 

The time was approaching,^ however, when he was 
to be stripped of that robe which has never, since the 
Revolution, been disgraced so foully as by him. The 
state of India had for some time occupied much of the 
attention of the British Parliament. Towards the close 
of the American war, two committees of the Commons 
sat on Eastern affairs. In one Edmund Burke took the 
lead. The other was under the presidency of the able 
and versatile Henry Dundas, then Lord Advocate of 
Scotland. Great as are the changes which, during the 
last sixty years, have taken place in our Asiatic do- 
minions, the reports which those committees laid on 
the table of the House will still be found most interest- 
ing and instructive. 

There was as yet no connection between the Company 
and either of the great parties in the state. The minis- 
ters had no motive to defend Indian abuses. On the 
contrary, it was for their interest to show, if possible, 
that the government and patronage of our Oriental 
empire might, with advantage, be transferred to them- 
selves. The votes, therefore, which, in consequence of 
the reports made by the two committees, were passed 



246 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

by the Commons, breathed the spirit of stern and in- 
dignant justice. The severest epithets were applied to 
several of the measures of Hastings, especially to the 
Rohilla war; and it was resolved, on the motion of Mr. 
Dundas, that the Company ought to recall a Governor- 
General who had brought such calamities on the Indian 
people, and such dishonor on the British name. An act 
was passed for limiting the jurisdiction of the Supreme 
Court. The bargain which Hastings had made with 
the Chief Justice was condemned in the strongest terms; 
and an address was presented to the king, praying that 
Impey might be summoned home to answer for his mis- 
deeds. 

Impey was recalled by a letter from the Secretary 
of State. But the proprietors of India Stock resolutely 
refused to dismiss Hastings from their service, and 
passed a resolution affirming, what was undeniably 
true, that they were intrusted by law with the right of 
naming and removing their Governor-General, and that 
they were not bound to obey the directions of a single 
branch of the legislature with respect to such nomina- 
tion or removal. 

Thus supported by his employers, Hastings re- 
mained at the head of the government of Bengal till 
the spring of 1785. His administration, so eventful 
and stormy, closed in almost perfect quiet. In the 
Council there was no regular opposition to his meas- 
ures. Peace was restored to India. The Mahratta war 
had ceased. Hyder was no more. A treaty had been 
concluded with his son, Tippoo; and the Carnatic had 



WARREN HASTINGS 247 

been evacuated by the armies of Mysore. Since the 
termination of the American war, England had no 
European enemy or rival in the Eastern seas. 

On a general review of the long administration of 
Hastings, it is impossible to deny that, against the 
great crimes by which it is blemished, we have to set 
off great public services. England had passed through 
a perilous crisis. She still, indeed, maintained her 
place in the foremost rank of European powers; and 
the manner in which she had defended herself against 
fearful odds had inspired surrounding nations with a 
high opinion both of her spirit and of her strength. 
Nevertheless, in every part of the world, except one, 
she had been a loser. Not only had she been compelled 
to acknowledge the independence of thirteen colonies 
peopled by her children, and to conciliate the Irish by 
giving up the right of legislating for them; but, in the 
Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the coast of 
Africa, on the continent of America, she had been com- 
pelled to cede the fruits of her victories in former wars. 
Spain regained Minorca and Florida; France regained 
Senegal, Goree, and several West Indian Islands. The 
only quarter of the world in which Britain had lost 
nothing was the quarter in which her interests had been 
committed to the care of Hastings. In spite of the ut- 
most exertions both of European and Asiatic enemies, 
the power of our country in the East had been greatly 
augmented. Benares was subjected; the Nabob Vizier 
reduced to vassalage. That our influence had been 
thus extended, nay, that Fort William and Fort St. 



248 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

George had not been occupied by hostile armies, was 
owing, if we may trust the general voice of the Eng- 
lish in India, to the skill and resolution of Hastings. 

His internal administration, with all its blemishes, 
gives him a title to be considered as one of the most re- 
markable men in our history. He dissolved the double 
government. He transferred the direction of affairs to 
English hands. Out of a frightful anarchy, he educed 
at least a rude and imperfect order. The whole organ- 
ization by which justice was dispensed, revenue col- 
lected, peace maintained throughout a territory not 
inferior in population to the dominions of Lewis the 
Sixteenth or of the Emperor Joseph, was formed and 
superintended by him. He boasted that every public 
office, without exception, which existed when he left 
Bengal, was his creation. It is quite true that this sys- 
tem, after all the improvements suggested by the ex- 
perience of sixty years, still needs improvement, and 
that it was at first far more defective than it now is. 
But whoever seriously considers what it is to construct 
from the beginning the whole of a machine so vast and 
complex as a government, will allow that what Hast- 
ings effected deserves high admiration. To compare 
the most celebrated European ministers to him seems 
to us as unjust as it would be to compare the best baker 
in London with Robinson Crusoe, who, before he could 
bake a single loaf, had to make his plough and his har- 
row, his fences and his scarecrows, his sickle and his 
flail, his mill and his oven. 

The just fame of Hastings rises still higher, when 



WARREN HASTINGS 249 

we reflect that he was not bred a statesman; that he 
was sent from school to a counting-house; and that 
he was employed during the prime of his manhood 
as a commercial agent, far from all intellectual society. 

Nor must we forget that all, or almost all, to whom, 
when placed at the head of affairs, he could apply 
for assistance, were persons who owed as little as 
himself, or less than himself, to education. A min- 
ister in Europe finds himself, on the first day on which 
he commences his functions, surrounded by experi- 
enced public servants, the depositaries of official tradi- 
tions. Hastings had no such help. His own reflection, 
his own energy, were to supply the place of all Down- 
ing Street ^ and Somerset House. ^ Having had no fa- 
cilities for learning, he was forced to teach. He had 
first to form himself, and then to form his instru- 
ments; and this not in a single department, but in 
all the departments of the administration. 

It must be added that, while engaged in this most 
arduous task, he was constantly trammelled by orders 
from home, and frequently borne down by a majority 
in council. The preservation of an Empire from a 
formidable combination of foreign enemies, the con- 
struction of a government in all its parts, were accom- 
plished by him, while every ship brought out bales 
of censure from his employers, and while the records 
of every consultation were filled with acrimonious min- 
utes by his colleagues. We believe that there never 
was a public man whose temper was so severely tried ; 
not Marlborough, when thwarted by the Dutch Dep- 



250 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

uties; not Wellington, when he had to deal at once 
with the Portuguese Regency, the Spanish Juntas, and 
Mr. Percival. But the temper of Hastings was equal 
to almost any trial. It was not sweet; but it was 
calm. Quick and vigorous as his intellect was, the pa- 
tience with which he endured the most cruel vexa- 
tions, till a remedy could be found, resembled the pa- 
tience of stupidity. He seems to have been capable of 
resentment, bitter and long-enduring; yet his resent- 
ment so seldom hurried him into any blunder, that it 
may be doubted whether what appeared to be revenge 
was anything but policy. 

The effect of this singular equanimity was that he 
always had the full command of all the resources of 
one of the most fertile minds that ever existed. Ac- 
cordingly no complication of perils and embarrassments 
could perplex him. For every difficulty he had a con- 
trivance ready; and, whatever may be thought of the 
justice and humanity of some of his contrivances, it is 
certain that they seldom failed to serve the purpose for 
which they were designed. 

Together with this extraordinary talent for devising 
expedients, Hastings possessed, in a very high degree, 
another talent scarcely less necessary to a man in his 
situation; we mean the talent for conducting political 
controversy. It is as necessary to an English states- 
man in the East that he should be able to write, as it 
is to a minister in this country that he should be able 
to speak. It is chiefly by the oratory of a public man 
here that the nation judges of his powers. It is from 



WARREN HASTINGS 251 

the letters and reports of a public man in India that 
the dispensers of patronage form their estimate of 
him. In each case, the talent which receives peculiar 
encouragement is developed, perhaps at the expense 
of the other powers. In this country, we sometimes 
hear men speak above their abilities. It is not very 
unusual to find gentlemen in the Indian service who 
write above their abilities. The English politician is 
a little too much of a debater; the Indian politician a 
little too much of an essayist. 

Of the numerous servants of the Company who 
have distinguished themselves as framers of minutes 
and despatches, Hastings stands at the head. He was 
indeed the person who gave to the official writing of 
the Indian governments the character which it still 
retains. He was matched against no common antago- 
nist. But even Francis was forced to acknowledge, 
with sullen and resentful candor, that there was no 
contending against the pen of Hastings. And, in 
truth, the Governor-General's power of making out a 
case, of perplexing what it was inconvenient that 
people should understand, and of setting in the clear- 
est point of view whatever would bear the light, was 
incomparable. His style must be praised with some 
reservation. It was in general forcible, pure, and pol- 
ished; but it was sometimes, though not often, turgid, 
and, on one or two occasions, even bombastic. Per- 
haps the fondness of Hastings for Persian literature 
may have tended to corrupt his taste. 

And, since we have referred to his literary tastes, 



252 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

it would be most unjust not to praise the judicious 
encouragement which, as a ruler, he gave to liberal 
studies and curious researches. His patronage was ex- 
tended, with prudent generosity, to voyages, travels, 
experiments, publications. He did little, it is true, 
towards introducing into India the learning of the 
West. To make the young natives of Bengal familiar 
with Milton and Adam Smith, to substitute the ge- 
ography, astronomy, and surgery of Europe for the 
dotages of the Brahminical superstition, or for the 
imperfect science of ancient Greece transfused through 
Arabian expositions, this was a scheme reserved to 
crown the beneficent administration of a far more 
virtuous ruler. ^ Still it is impossible to refuse high 
commendation to a man who, taken from a ledger to 
govern an empire, overwhelmed by public business, 
surrounded by people as busy as himself, and sepa- 
rated by thousands of leagues from almost all literary 
society, gave, both by his example and by his munifi- 
cence, a great impulse to learning. In Persian and 
Arabic literature he was deeply skilled. With the 
Sanscrit he was not himself acquainted; but those 
who first brought that language to the knowledge of 
European students owed much to his encouragement. 
It was under his protection that the Asiatic Society 
commenced its honorable career. That distinguished 
body selected him to be its first president; but, with 
excellent taste and feeling, he declined the honor in 
favor of Sir William Jones. But the chief advantage 
which the students of Oriental letters derived from 



WARREN HASTINGS 253 

his patronage remains to be mentioned. The Pundits ^ 
of Bengal had always looked with great jealousy on 
the attempts of foreigners to pry into those mysteries 
which were locked up in the sacred dialect. The 
Brahminical religion had been persecuted by the Ma- 
hommedans. What the Hindoos knew of the spirit of 
the Portuguese government might warrant them in 
apprehending persecution from Christians. That ap- 
prehension the wisdom and moderation of Hastings re- 
moved. He was the first foreign ruler who succeeded 
in gaining the confidence of the hereditary priests of 
India, and who induced them to lay open to English 
scholars the secrets of the old Brahminical theology 
and jurisprudence. 

It is indeed impossible to deny that, in the great 
art of inspiring large masses of human beings with 
confidence and attachment, no ruler ever surpassed 
Hastings. If he had made himself popular with the 
English by giving up the Bengalees to extortion and 
oppression, or if, on the other hand, he had conciliated 
the Bengalees and alienated the English, there would 
have been no cause for wonder. What is peculiar to 
him is that, being the chief of a small band of stran- 
gers who exercised boundless power over a great indig- 
enous population, he made himself beloved both by 
the subject many and by the dominant few. The af- 
fection felt for him by the civil service was singularly 
ardent and constant. Through all his disasters and per- 
ils, his brethren stood by him with steadfast loyalty. 
The army, at the same time, loved him as armies have 



254 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

seldom loved any but the greatest chiefs who have led 
them to victory. Even in his disputes with distin- 
guished military men, he could always count on the 
support of the military profession. While such was 
his empire over the hearts of his countrymen, he 
enjoyed among the natives a popularity, such as other 
governors have perhaps better merited, but such as no 
other governor has been able to attain. He spoke 
their vernacular dialects with facility and precision. 
He was intimately acquainted with their feelings and 
usages. On one or two occasions, for great ends, he 
deliberately acted in defiance of their opinion; but on 
such occasions he gained more in their respect than 
he lost in their love. In general, he carefully avoided 
all that could shock their national or religious preju- 
dices. His administration was indeed in many re- 
spects faulty; but the Bengalee standard of good 
government was not high. Under the Nabobs, the 
hurricane of Mahratta cavalry had passed annually 
over the rich alluvial plain. But even the Mahratta 
shrank from a conflict with the mighty children of 
the sea; and the immense rice harvests of the Lower 
Ganges were safely gathered in, under the protection 
of the English sword. The first English conquerors 
had been more rapacious and merciless even than the 
Mahrattas; but that generation had passed away. 
Defective as was the police, heavy as were the public 
burdens, it is probable that the oldest man in Bengal 
could not recollect a season of equal security and pros- 
perity. For the first time within living memory, the 



WARREN HASTINGS 255 

province was placed under a government strong enough 
to prevent others from robbing, and not incHned to 
play the robber itself. These things inspired good- 
will. At the same time, the constant success of Hast- 
ings and the manner in which he extricated himself 
from every difficulty made him an object of super- 
stitious admiration; and the more than regal splendor 
which he sometimes displayed dazzled a people who 
have much in common with children. Even now, after 
the lapse of more than fifty years, the natives of India 
still talk of him as the greatest of the English; and 
nurses sing children to sleep with a jingling ballad 
about the fleet horses and richly caparisoned elephants 
of Sahib Warren Hostein. 

The gravest offences of which Hastings was guilty 
did not affect his popularity with the people of Bengal ; 
for those offences were committed against neighboring 
states. Those offences, as our readers must have per- 
ceived, we are not disposed to vindicate; yet, in order 
that the censure may be justly apportioned to the 
transgression, it is fit that the motive of the criminal 
should be taken into consideration. The motive which 
prompted the worst acts of Hastings was misdirected 
and ill-regulated public spirit. The rules of justice, 
the sentiments of humanity, the plighted faith of trea- 
ties, were in his view as nothing, when opposed to the 
immediate interest of the state. This is no justifica- 
tion, according to the principles either of morality, or 
of what we believe to be identical with morality, 
namely, far-sighted policy. Nevertheless the common- 



256 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

sense of mankind, which in questions of this kind seldom 
goes far wrong, will always recognize a distinction be- 
tween crimes which originate in an inordinate zeal for 
the commonwealth, and crimes which originate in sel- 
fish cupidity. To the benefit of this distinction Hast- 
ings is fairly entitled. There is, we conceive, no reason 
to suspect that the Rohilla war, the revolution of 
Benares, or the spoliation of the Princesses of Oude, 
added a rupee to his fortune. We will not affirm that, 
in all pecuniary dealings, he showed that punctilious in- 
tegrity, that dread of the faintest appearance of evil, 
which is now the glory of the Indian civil service. But 
when the school in which he had been trained and the 
temptations to which he was exposed are considered, we 
are more inclined to praise him for his general upright- 
ness with respect to money, than rigidly to blame him 
for a few transactions which would now be called indeli- 
cate and irregular, but which even now would hardly be 
designated as corrupt. A rapacious man he certainly 
was not. Had he been so, he would infallibly have re- 
turned to his country the richest subject in Europe. 
We speak within compass, when we say that, without 
applying any extraordinary pressure he might easily 
have obtained from the zemindars ^ of the Company's 
provinces and from neighboring princes, in the course of 
thirteen years, more than three millions sterling, and 
might have outshone the splendor of Carlton House^ 
and of the Palais Royal. He brought home a fortune 
such as a Governor-General, fond of state, and careless of 
thrift, might easily, during so long a tenure of office, save 



WARREN HASTINGS 257 

out of his legal salary. Mrs. Hastings, we are afraid, 
was less scrupulous. It was generally believed that 
she accepted presents with great alacrity, and that she 
thus formed, without the connivance of her husband, a 
private hoard amounting to several lacs ^ of rupees. 
We are the more inclined to give credit to this story, 
because Mr. Gleig, who cannot but have heard it, does 
not, as far as we have observed, notice or contradict it. 
The influence of Mrs. Hastings over her husband 
was indeed such that she might easily have obtained 
much larger sums than she was ever accused of receiv- 
ing. At length her health began to give way ; and the 
Governor-General, much against his will, was compelled 
to send her to England. He seems to h'ave loved her 
with that love which is peculiar to men of strong minds, 
to men whose affection is not easily won or widely dif- 
fused. The talk of Calcutta ran for some time on the 
luxurious manner in which he fitted up the round-house 
of an Indiaman for her accommodation, on the profu- 
sion of sandal- wood and carved ivory which adorned 
her cabin, and on the thousands of rupees which had 
been expended in order to procure for her the society of 
an agreeable female companion during the voyage. We 
may remark here that the letters of Hastings to his 
wife are exceedingly characteristic. They are tender, 
and full of indications of esteem and confidence; but, 
at the same time, a little more ceremonious than is 
usual in so intimate a relation. The solemn courtesy 
with which he compliments '^his elegant Marian" re- 
minds us now and then of the dignified air with which 



258 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

Sir Charles Grandison ^ bowed over Miss Byron's hand 
in the cedar parlor. 

After some months, Hastings prepared to follow his 
wife to England. When it was announced that he was 
about to quit his ofhce, the feeling of the society which 
he had so long governed manifested itself by many 
signs. Addresses poured in from Europeans and Asi- 
atics, from civil functionaries, soldiers, and traders. On 
the day on which he delivered up the keys of office, a 
crowd of friends and admirers formed a lane to the quay 
where he embarked. Several barges escorted him far 
down the river; and some attached friends refused to 
quit him till the low coast of Bengal was fading from the 
view, and till the pilot was leaving the ship. 

Of his voyage little is known, except that he amused 
himself with his books and with his pen; and that 
among the compositions by which he beguiled the tedi- 
ousness of that long leisure, was a pleasing imitation of 
Horace's Otium Divos rogat. This little poem was in- 
scribed to Mr. Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, a 
man of whose integrity, humanity, and honor it is im- 
possible to speak too highly, but who, like some other 
excellent members of the civil service, extended to the 
conduct of his friend Hastings an indulgence of which 
his own conduct never stood in need. 

The voyage was, for those times, very speedy. Hast- 
ings was little more than four months on the sea. In 
June, 1785, he landed at Plymouth, posted to London, 
appeared at Court, paid his respects in Leadenhall 
Street, and then retired with his wife to Cheltenham. 



WARREN HASTINGS 259 

He was greatly pleased with his reception. The King 
treated him with marked distinction. The Queen, who 
had already incurred much censure on account of the 
favor which, in spite of the ordinary severity of her 
virtue, she had shown to the "elegant Marian," was 
not less gracious to Hastings. The Directors received 
him in a solemn sitting; and their chairman read to him 
a vote of thanks which they had passed without one 
dissentient voice. ''I find myself," said Hastings, in a 
letter written about a quarter of a year after his ar- 
rival in England, '' I find myself everywhere, and uni- 
versally, treated with evidences, apparent even to my 
own observation, that I possess the good opinion of my 
country." 

The confident and exulting tone of his correspond- 
ence about this time is the more remarkable, because 
he had already received ample notice of the attack 
which was in preparation. Within a week after he 
landed at Plymouth, Burke gave notice ^ in the House 
of Commons of a motion seriously affecting a gentle- 
man lately returned from India. The session, however, 
was then so far advanced, that it was impossible to 
enter on so extensive and important a subject. 

Hastings, it is clear, was not sensible of the danger 
of his position. Indeed that sagacity, that judgment, 
that readiness in devising expedients, which had dis- 
tinguished him in the East, seemed now to have for- 
saken him; not that his abilities were at all impaired; 
not that he was not still the same man who had tri- 
umphed over Francis and Nuncomar, who had made 



260 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

the Chief Justice and the Nabob Vizier his tools, who 
had deposed Cheyte Sing, and repelled Hyder Ali. But 
an oak, as Mr. Grattan finely said, should not be trans- 
planted at fifty. A man who, having left England 
when a boy, returns to it after thirty or forty years 
passed in India, will find, be his talents what they may, 
that he has much both to learn and to unlearn before 
he can take a place among English statesmen. The 
working of a representative system, the w^ar of parties, 
the arts of debate, the influence of the press, are start- 
ling novelties to him. Surrounded on every side by 
new machines and new tactics, he is as much bewildered 
as Hannibal would have been at Waterloo, or Themis- 
tocles at Trafalgar. His very acuteness deludes him. 
His very vigor causes him to stumble. The more cor- 
rect his maxims, when applied to the state of society to 
which he is accustomed, the more certain they are to 
lead him astray. This was strikingly the case with 
Hastings. In India he had a bad hand; ^ but he was 
master of the game, and he won every stake. In Eng- 
land he held excellent cards, if he had known how to 
play them ; and it was chiefly by his own errors that he 
was brought to the verge of ruin. 

Of all his errors the most serious was perhaps the 
choice of a champion. Clive, in similar circumstances, 
had made a singularly happy selection. He put him- 
self into the hands of Wedderburn, afterwards Lord 
Loughborough, one of the few great advocates who 
have also been great in the House of Commons. To 
the defence of Clive, therefore, nothing was wanting, 



WARREN HASTINGS 261 

neither learning nor knowledge of the world, neither 
forensic acuteness nor that eloquence which charms 
political assemblies. Hastings intrusted his interests 
to a very different person, a major in the Bengal army, 
named Scott. This gentleman had been sent over from 
India some time before as an agent of the Governor- 
General. It was rumored that his services were re- 
warded with Oriental munificence; and we believe 
that he received much more than Hastings could con- 
veniently spare. The Major obtained a seat in Par- 
liament, and was there regarded as the organ of his 
employer. It was evidently impossible that a gentle- 
man so situated could speak with the authority which 
belongs to an independent position. Nor had the agent 
of Hastings the talents necessary for obtaining the ear 
of an assembly which, accustomed to listen to great 
orators, had naturally become fastidious. He was al- 
ways on his legs; he was very tedious; and he had only 
one topic, the merits and wrongs of Hastings. Every- 
body who knows the House of Commons will easily 
guess what followed. The Major was soon considered 
as the greatest bore of his time. His exertions were not 
confined to Parliament. There was hardly a day on 
which the newspapers did not contain some puff upon 
Hastings, signed Asiaticus or Bengalensis, but known to 
be written by the indefatigable Scott; and hardly a 
month in which some bulky pamphlet on the same sub- 
ject, and from the same pen, did not pass to the trunk- 
makers and the pastry-cooks. As to this gentleman's 
capacity for conducting a delicate question through 



262 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

Parliament, our readers will want no evidence beyond 
that which they will find in letters preserved in these 
volumes. We will give a single specimen of his temper 
and judgment. He designated the greatest man then 
living as " that reptile Mr. Burke." 

In spite, however, of this unfortunate choice, the 
general aspect of affairs was favorable to Hastings. 
The King was on his side. The Company and its serv- 
ants were zealous in his cause. Among public men he 
had many ardent friends. Such were Lord Mansfield, 
who had outlived the vigor of his body, but not that of 
his mind; and Lord Lansdowne, who, though uncon- 
nected with any party, retained the importance which 
belongs to great talents and knowledge. The ministers 
were generally believed to be favorable to the late 
Governor-General. They owed their power to the 
clamor which had been raised against Mr. Fox's East 
India Bill. The authors of that bill, when accused of 
invading vested rights, and of setting up powers un- 
known to the constitution, had defended themselves by 
pointing to the crimes of Hastings, and by arguing that 
abuses so extraordinary justified extraordinary meas- 
ures. Those who, by opposing that bill, had raised 
themselves to the head of affairs, would naturally be 
inclined to extenuate the evils which had been made the 
plea for administering so violent a remedy; and such^ 
in fact, was their general disposition. The Lord Chan- 
cellor Thurlow, in particular, whose great place and 
force of intellect gave him a weight in the government 
inferior only to that of Mr. Pitt, espoused the cause of 



WARREN HASTINGS 263 

Hastings with indecorous violence. Mr. Pitt, though 
he had censured many parts of the Indian system, 
had studiously abstained from saying a word against 
the late chief of the Indian government. To Major 
Scott, indeed, the young minister had in private ex- 
tolled Hastings as a great, a wonderful man, who had 
the highest claims on the government. There was 
only one objection to granting all that so eminent a 
servant of the public could ask. The resolution of 
censure still remained on the journals of the House of 
Commons. That resolution was, indeed, unjust; but, 
till it was rescinded, could the minister advise the King 
to bestow any mark of approbation on the person 
censured? If Major Scott is to be trusted, Mr. Pitt 
declared that this was the only reason which prevented 
the advisers of the Crown from conferring a peerage 
on the late Governor-General. Mr. Dundas was the 
only important member of the administration who was 
deeply committed to a different view of the subject. 
He had moved the resolution which created the dif- 
ficulty; but even from him little was to be appre- 
hended. Since he had presided over the committee 
on Eastern affairs, the great changes had taken place. 
He was surrounded by new allies; he had fixed his 
hopes on new objects; and whatever may have been 
his good qualities, — and he had many, — flattery itself 
never reckoned rigid consistency in the number. 

From the ministry, therefore, Hastings had every 
reason to expect support; and the ministry was very 
powerful. The opposition was loud and vehement 



264 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

against him. But the opposition/ though formidable 
from the wealth and influence of some of its mem- 
bers, and from the admirable talents and eloquence of 
others, was outnumbered in Parliament, and odious 
throughout the country. Nor, as far as we can judge, 
was the opposition generally desirous to engage in so 
serious an undertaking as the impeachment of an 
Indian Governor. Such an impeachment must last for 
years. It must impose on the chiefs of the party an 
immense load of labor. Yet it could scarcely, in any 
manner, affect the event of the great political game. 
The followers of the coalition were therefore more 
inclined to revile Hastings than to prosecute him. 
They lost no opportunity of coupling his name with 
the names of the most hateful tyrants of whom his- 
tory makes mention. The wits of Brooks's ^ aimed 
their keenest sarcasms both at his public and at his 
domestic life. Some fine diamonds which he had 
presented, as it was rumored, to the royal family, 
and a certain richly carved ivory bed which the Queen 
had done him the honor to accept from him, were 
favorite subjects of ridicule. One lively poet pro- 
posed that the great acts of the fair Marian's pres- 
ent husband should be immortalized by the pencil of 
his predecessor; and that Imhoff should be employed 
to embellish the House of Commons with paintings 
of the bleeding Rohillas, of Nuncomar swinging, of 
Cheyte Sing letting himself down to the Ganges. 
Another, in an exquisitely humorous parody of Virgil 's 
third eclogue, propounded the question, what that min- 



WARREN HASTINGS 265 

eral could be of which the rays had power to make 
the most austere of princesses the friend of a wanton. 
A third described, with gay malevolence, the gorgeous 
appearance of Mrs. Hastings at St. James's, the galaxy 
of jewels, torn from Indian Begums, which adorned 
her head dress, her necklace gleaming with future 
votes, and the depending questions that shone upon 
her ears. Satirical attacks of this description, and 
perhaps a motion for a vote of censure, would have 
satisfied the great body of the opposition. But there 
were two men whose indignation was not to be so 
appeased, Philip Francis and Edmund Burke. 

Francis had recently entered the House of Commons, 
and had already established a character there for in- 
dustry and ability. He labored indeed under one most 
unfortunate defect, want of fluency. But he occa- 
sionally expressed himself with a dignity and energy 
worthy of the greatest orators. Before he had been 
many days in Parliament, he incurred the bitter dis- 
like of Pitt, who constantly treated him with as much 
asperity as the laws of debate would allow. Nei- 
ther lapse of years nor change of scene had mitigated 
the enmities which Francis had brought back from the 
East. After his usual fashion, he mistook his malevo- 
lence for virtue, nursed it, as preachers tell us that we 
ought to nurse our good dispositions, and paraded it 
on all occasions with Pharisaical ostentation.^ 

The zeal of Burke was still fiercer; but it was far 
purer. Men unable to understand the elevation of his 
mind have tried to find out some discreditable motive 



266 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

for the vehemence and pertinacity which he showed on 
this occasion. But they have altogether failed. The 
idle story that he had some private slight to revenge 
has long been given up, even by the advocates of Hast- 
ings. Mr. Gleig supposes that Burke was actuated by 
party spirit, that he retained a bitter remembrance of 
the fall of the coalition,^ that he attributed that fall to 
the exertions of the East India interest, and that he 
considered Hastings as the head and the representative 
of that interest. This explanation seems to be suffi- 
ciently refuted by a reference to dates. The hostility 
of Burke to Hastings commenced long before the coali- 
tion; and lasted long after Burke had become a stren- 
uous supporter of those by whom the coalition had 
been defeated. It began when Burke and Fox, closely 
allied together, were attacking the influence of the 
crown, and calling for peace with the American repub- 
lic. It continued till Burke, alienated from Fox, and 
loaded with the favors of the crown, died, preaching a 
crusade against the French republic. We surely can- 
not attribute to the events of 1784 an enmity which 
began in 1781, and which retained undiminished force 
long after persuns far more deeply implicated than 
Hastings in the events of 1784 had been cordially for- 
given. And why should we look for any other expla- 
nation of Burke's conduct than that which we find on 
the surface? The plain truth is that Hastings had 
committed some great crimes, and that the thought of 
those crimes made the blood of Burke boil in his veins. 
For Burke was a man in whom compassion for suffer- 



WARREN HASTINGS 267 

ing, and hatred of injustice and tyranny, were as strong 
as in Las Casas or Clarkson. And although in him, 
as in Las Casas and in Clarkson, these noble feelings 
were alloyed with the infirmity which belongs to hu- 
man nature, he is, like them, entitled to this great 
praise, that he devoted years of intense labor to the 
service of a people with whom he had neither blood 
nor language, neither religion nor manners in common, 
and from whom no requital, no thanks, no applause 
could be expected. 

His knowledge of India ^ was such as few, even of 
those Europeans who have passed many years in that 
country, have attained, and such as certainly was 
never attained by any public man who had not quitted 
Europe. He had studied the history, the laws, and 
the usages of the East with an industry, such as is 
seldom found united to so much genius and so much 
sensibility. Others have perhaps been equally labori- 
ous, and have collected an equal mass of materials. 
But the manner in which Burke brought his higher 
powers of intellect to work on statements of facts, 
and on tables of figures, was peculiar to himself. In 
every part of those huge bales of Indian information 
which repelled almost all other readers, his mind, at 
once philosophical and poetical, found something to 
instruct or to delight. His reason analyzed and di- 
gested those vast and shapeless masses; his imagi- 
nation animated and colored them. Out of darkness, 
and dulness, and confusion, he formed a multitude 
of ingenious theories and vivid pictures. He had, in 



268 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

the highest degree, that noble faculty whereby man 
is able to live in the past and in the future, in the 
distant and in the unreal. India and its inhabitants 
were not to him, as to most Englishmen, mere names 
and abstractions, but a real country and a real people. 
The burning sun, the strange vegetation of the palm 
and the cocoa tree, the rice-field, the tank, the huge 
trees, older than the Mogul empire, under which the vil- 
lage crowds assemble, the thatched roof of the peasant's 
hut, the rich tracery of the mosque where the imaum 
prays with his face to Mecca,^ the drums, and banners 
and gaudy idols, the devotee swinging in the air, 
the graceful maiden, with the pitcher on her head, 
descending the steps to the river-side, the black faces, 
the long beards, the yellow streaks of sect, the turbans 
and the flowing robes, the spears and the silver maces, 
the elephants with their canopies of state, the gorgeous 
palanquin of the prince, and the close litter of the noble 
lady, all these things were to him as the objects ainidst 
which his own life had been passed, as the objects 
which lay on the road between Beaconsfield and St. 
James's Street.^ All India was present to the eye of his 
mind, from the halls where suitors laid gold and per- 
fumes at the feet of sovereigns to the wild moor where 
the gypsy camp was pitched, from the bazar, humming 
like a bee-hive with the crowd of buyers and sellers, to 
the jungle where the lonely courier shakes his bunch of 
iron rings to scare away the hyaenas. He had just as 
lively an idea of the insurrection at Benares as of 
Lord George Gordon's ^ riots, and of the execution of 



WARREN HASTINGS 269 

Nuncomar as of the execution of Dr. Dodd. Oppres- 
sion in Bengal was to him the same thing as oppres- 
sion in the streets of London. 

He saw that Hastings had been guilty of some most 
unjustifiable acts. All that followed was natural and 
necessary in a mind like Burke's. His imagination 
and his passions, once excited, hurried him beyond 
the bounds of justice and good sense. His reason, 
powerful as it was, became the slave of feelings which 
it should have controlled. His indignation, virtuous 
in its origin, acquired too much of the character of 
personal aversion. He could see no mitigating cir- 
cumstance, no redeeming merit. His temper, which, 
though generous and affectionate, had always been ir- 
ritable, had now been made almost savage by bodily 
infirmities and mental vexations. Conscious of great 
powers and great virtues, he found himself, in age 
and poverty, a mark for the hatred of a perfidious 
court and a deluded people. In Parliament his elo- 
quence was out of date. A young generation, which 
knew him not, had filled the House. Whenever he 
rose to speak, his voice was drowned by the unseemly 
interruption of lads who were in their cradles when his 
orations on the Stamp Act called forth the applause of 
the great Earl of Chatham. These things had produced 
on his proud and sensitive spirit an effect at which we 
cannot wonder. He could no longer discuss any ques- 
tion with calmness, or make allowance for honest dif- 
ferences of opinion. Those who think that he was more 
violent and acrimonious in debates about India than on 



270 MA CA ULA Y'S ESS A Y 

other occasions are ill informed respecting the last years 
of his life. In the discussions on the Commercial Treaty 
with the Court of Versailles, on the Regency, on the 
French Revolution, he showed even more virulence 
than in conducting the impeachment. Indeed it may 
be remarked that the very persons who call him a mis- 
chievous maniac, for condemning in burning words the 
Rohilla war and the spoliation of the Begums, exalted 
him into a prophet as soon as he began to declaim, with 
greater vehemence, and not with greater reason, against 
the taking of the Bastile and the insults offered to 
Marie Antoinette. To us he appears to have been 
neither a maniac in the former case, nor a prophet in 
the latter, but in both cases a great and good man, led 
into extravagance by a sensibility ^ which domineered 
over all his faculties. 

It may be doubted whether the personal antipathy 
of Francis or the nobler indignation of Burke, would 
have led their party to adopt extreme measures 
against Hastings, if his own conduct had been judi- 
cious. He should have felt that, great as his public 
services had been, he was not faultless, and should 
have been content to make his escape, without aspir- 
ing to the honors of a triumph. He and his agent 
took a different view. They were impatient for the 
rewards which, as they conceived, were deferred only 
till Burke's attack should be over. They accordingly 
resolved to force on a decisive action with an enemy 
for whom, if they had been wise, they would have 
made a bridge of gold.^ On the first day of the ses- 



WARREN HASTINGS 271 

sion in 1786, Major Scott reminded Burke of the no- 
tice given in the preceding year, and asked whether 
it was seriously intended to bring any charge against 
the late Governor-General. This challenge left no 
course open to Opposition, except to come forward 
as accusers, or to acknowledge themselves calumnia- 
tors. The administration of Hastings had not been so 
blameless, nor was the great party of Fox and North 
so feeble, that it could be prudent to venture on so 
bold a defiance. The leaders of the Opposition in- 
stantly returned the only answer which they could 
with honor return; and the whole party was irrevoca- 
bly pledged to a prosecution. 

Burke began his operations by applying for Papers. 
Some of the documents for which he asked were 
refused by the ministers, who, in the debate, held lan- 
guage such as strongly confirmed the prevailing opin- 
ion, that they intended to support Hastings. In April, 
the charges were laid on the table. They had been 
drawn by Burke with great ability, though in a form 
too much resembling that of a pamphlet. Hastings 
was furnished with a copy of the accusations; and it 
was intimated to him that he might, if he thought fit, 
be heard in his own defence at the bar of the Commons. 

Here again Hastings was pursued by the same 
fatality which had attended him ever since the day 
when he set foot on English ground. It seemed to 
be decreed that this man, so politic and so success- 
ful in the East, should commit nothing but blunders 
in Europe. Any judicious adviser would have told 



272 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

him that the best thing which he could do would be 
to make an eloquent, forcible, and affecting oration 
at the bar of the House; but that, if he could not trust 
himself to speak, and found it necessary to read, he 
ought to be as concise as possible. Audiences accus- 
tomed to extemporaneous debating of the highest ex- 
cellence are always impatient of long written com- 
positions. Hastings, however, sat down as he would 
have done at the Government-house in Bengal, and 
prepared a paper of immense length. That paper^ 
if recorded on the consultations of an Indian admin- 
istration, would have been justly praised as a very 
able minute. But it was now out of place. It fell flat, 
as the best written defence must have fallen flat, on 
an assembly accustomed to the animated and strenu- 
ous conflicts of Pitt and Fox. The members, as soon 
as their curiosity about the face and demeanor of so 
eminent a stranger was satisfied, walked away to din- 
ner, and left Hastings to tell his story till midnight 
to the clerks and the Serjeant-at-arms. 

All preliminary steps having been duly taken, Burke, 
in the beginning of June, brought forward the charge 
relating to the Rohilla war. He acted discreetly in 
placing this accusation in the van; for Dundas had 
formerly moved, and the House had adopted, a resolu- 
tion condemning, in the most severe terms, the policy 
followed by Hastings with regard to Rohilcund. Dun- 
das had little, or rather nothing, to say in defence of 
his own consistency; but he put a bold face on the 
matter, and opposed the motion. Among other things. 



WARREN HASTINGS 273 

he declared that, though he still thought the Rohilla 
war was unjustifiable, he considered the services which 
Hastings had subsequently rendered to the state as 
sufficient to atone even for so great an offence. Pitt 
did not speak, but voted with Dundas; and Hastings 
was absolved by a hundred and nineteen votes against 
sixty-seven. 

Hastings was now confident of victory. It seemed, 
indeed, that he had reason to be so. The Rohilla war 
was, of all his measures, that which his accusers might 
with greatest advantage assail. It had been con- 
demned by the Court of Directors. It had been con- 
demned by the House of Commons. It had been 
condemned by Mr. Dundas, who had since become the 
chief minister of the Crown for Indian affairs. Yet 
Burke, having chosen this strong ground, had been 
completely defeated on it. That, having failed here, 
he should succeed on any point, was generally thought 
impossible. It was rumored at the clubs and coffee- 
houses that one or perhaps two more charges would 
be brought forward; that if, on those charges, the 
sense of the House of Commons should be against 
impeachment, the Opposition would let the matter 
drop, that Hastings would be immediately raised to 
the peerage, decorated with the star of the Bath,^ 
sworn of the privy council,^ and invited to lend the 
assistance of his talents and experience to the India 
board. Lord Thurlow, indeed, some months before, 
had spoken with contempt of the scruples which pre- 
vented Pitt from calling Hastings to the House of 



274 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

Lords; and had even said that, if the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer was afraid of the Commons, there was 
nothing to prevent the Keeper of the Great Seal from 
taking the royal pleasure about a patent of peerage. 
The very title was chosen. Hastings was to be Lord 
Daylesford. For, through all changes of scene and 
changes of fortune, remained unchanged his attach- 
ment to the spot which had witnessed the greatness 
and the fall of his family, and which had borne so 
great a part in the first dreams of his young ambition. 
But in a very few days these fair prospects were 
overcast. On the thirteenth of June, Mr. Fox brought 
forward, with great ability and eloquence, the charge 
respecting the treatment of Cheyte Sing. Francis 
followed on the same side. The friends of Hastings 
were in high spirits when Pitt rose. With his usual 
abundance and felicity of language, the minister gave 
his opinion on the case. He maintained that the 
Governor-General was justified in calling on the Rajah 
of Benares for pecuniary assistance, and in imposing a 
fine when that assistance was contumaciously withheld. 
He also thought that the conduct of the Governor- 
General during the insurrection had been distinguished 
by ability and presence of mind. He censured, with 
great bitterness, the conduct of Francis, both in India 
and in Parliament, as most dishonest and malignant. 
The necessary inference from Pitt's arguments seemed 
to be that Hastings ought to be honorably acquitted; 
and both the friends and the opponents of the Minister 
expected from him a declaration to that effect. To the 



WARREN HASTINGS 275 

astonishment of all parties, he concluded by saying 
that, though he thought it right in Hastings to fine 
Cheyte Sing for contumacy, yet the amount of the 
fine was too great for the occasion. On this ground, 
and on this ground alone, did Mr. Pitt, applauding 
every other part of the conduct of Hastings with re- 
gard to Benares, declare that he should vote in favor 
of Mr. Fox's motion. 

The House was thunderstruck; and it well might be 
so. For the wrong done to Cheyte Sing, even had it 
been as flagitious as Fox and Francis contended, was 
a trifle when compared with the horrors which had 
been inflicted on Rohilcund. But if Mr. Pitt's view 
of the case of Cheyte Sing were correct, there was no 
ground for an impeachment, or even for a vote of cen- 
sure. If the offence of Hastings was really no more 
than this, that, having a right to impose a mulct, the 
amount of which mulct was not defined, but was left 
to be settled by his discretion, he had, not for his own 
advantage, but for that of the state, demanded too 
much, was this an offence which required a criminal 
proceeding of the highest solemnity, a criminal pro- 
ceeding, to which, during sixty years, no public func- 
tionary had been subjected? We can see, we think, 
in what way a man of sense and integrity might have 
been induced to take any course respecting Hastings, 
except the course which Mr. Pitt took. Such a man 
might have thought a great example necessary, for the 
preventing of injustice, and for the vindicating of the 
national honor, and might, on that ground, have voted 



276 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

for impeachment both on the Rohilla charge, and on 
the Benares charge. Such a man might have thought 
that the offences of Hastings had been atoned for by 
great services, and might, on that ground, have voted 
against the impeachment, on both charges. With great 
diffidence, we give it as our opinion that the most cor- 
rect course would, on the whole, have been to impeach 
on the Rohilla charge, and to acquit on the Benares 
charge. Had the Benares charge appeared to us in 
the same light in which it appeared to Mr. Pitt, we 
should without hesitation have voted for acquittal on 
that charge. The one course which it is inconceivable 
that any man of a tenth part of Mr. Pitt's abilities 
can have honestly taken was the course which he took. 
He acquitted Hastings on the Rohilla charge. He soft- 
ened down the Benares charge till it became no charge 
at all; and then he pronounced that it contained mat- 
ter for impeachment. 

Nor must it be forgotten that the principal reason 
assigned by the ministry for not impeaching Hastings 
on account of the Rohilla war was this, that the delin- 
quencies of the early part of his administration had 
been atoned for by the excellence of the later part. 
Was it not most extraordinary that men who had held 
this language could afterwards vote that the later 
part of his administration furnished matter for no less 
than twenty articles of impeachment? They first 
represented the conduct of Hastings in 1780 and 1781 
as so highly meritorious that, like works of superero- 
gation ^ in the Catholic theology, it ought to be ef- 



WARREN HASTINGS 277 

ficacious for the cancelling of former offences; and 
they then prosecuted him for his conduct in 1780 and 
1781. 

The general astonishment was the greater, because, 
only twenty -four hours before, the members on whom 
the minister could depend had received the usual 
notes from the Treasury, begging them to be in their 
places and to vote against Mr. Fox's motion. It was 
asserted by Mr. Hastings, that, early on the morning 
of the very day on which the debate took place, Dun- 
das called on Pitt, woke him, and was closeted with 
him many hours. The result of this conference was 
a determination to give up the late Governor-General 
to the vengeance of the Opposition. It was impossible 
even for the most powerful minister to carry all his 
followers with him in so strange a course. Several 
persons high in office, the Attorney-General, Mr. Gren- 
ville, and Lord Mulgrave, divided against Mr. Pitt. 
But the devoted adherents who stood by the head of 
the government without asking questions, were suf- 
ficiently numerous to turn the scale. A hundred and 
nineteen members voted for Mr. Fox's motion; seventy- 
nine against it. Dundas silently followed Pitt. 

That good and great man, the late William Wilber- 
force,^ often related the events . of this remarkable 
night. He described the amazement of the House, 
and the bitter reflections which were muttered against 
the Prime Minister by some of the habitual supporters 
of government. Pitt himself appeared to feel that 
his conduct required some explanation. He left the 



278 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

treasury bench, sat for some time next to Mr. Wilber- 
force, and very earnestly declared that he had found 
it impossible, as a man of conscience, to stand any 
longer by Hastings. The business, he said, was too 
bad. Mr. Wilberforce, we are bound to add, fully 
believed that his friend was sincere, and that the 
suspicions to which this mysterious affair gave rise 
were altogether unfounded. 

Those suspicions, indeed, were such as it is painful 
to mention. The friends of Hastings, most of whom, 
it is to be observed, generally supported the adminis- 
tration, affirmed that the motive of Pitt and Dundas 
was jealousy. Hastings was personally a favorite 
with the King. He was the idol of the East India 
Company and of its servants. If he were absolved by 
the Commons, seated among the Lords, admitted to 
the Board of Control, closely allied with the strong- 
minded and imperious Thurlow, was it not almost 
certain that he would soon draw to himself the entire 
management of Eastern affairs? Was it not possible 
that he might become a formidable rival in the cabi- 
net? It had probably got abroad that very singular 
communications had taken place between Thurlow and 
Major Scott, and that, if the First Lord of the Treas- 
ury was afraid to recommend Hastings for a peerage, 
the Chancellor was ready to take the responsibility of 
that step on himself. Of all ministers, Pitt was the 
least likely to submit with patience to such an en- 
croachment on his functions. If the Commons im- 
peached Hastings, all danger was at an end. The pro- 



WARREN HASTINGS 279 

ceeding, however it might terminate, would probably 
last some years. In the meantime, the accused person 
would be excluded from honors and public employ- 
ments, and could scarcely venture even to pay his 
duty at court. Such were the motives attributed by a 
great part of the pubHc to the young minister, whose 
ruling passion was generally believed to be avarice of 
power. 

The prorogation ^ soon interrupted the discussions 
respecting Hastings. In the following year, those 
discussions were resumed. The charge touching the 
spoliation of the Begums ^ was brought forward by 
Sheridan,^ in a speech which was so imperfectly re- 
ported that it may be said to be wholly lost, but 
which was, without doubt, the most elaborately bril- 
liant of all the productions of his ingenious mind. 
The impression which it produced was such as has 
never been equalled. He sat down, not merely amidst 
cheering, but amidst the loud clapping of hands, in 
which the Lords below the bar and the strangers in 
the gallery joined. The excitement of the House was 
such that no other speaker could obtain a hearing; 
and the debate was adjourned. The ferment spread 
fast through the town. Within four and twenty hours, 
Sheridan was offered a thousand pounds for the copy- 
right of the speech, if he would himself correct it for 
the press. The impression made by this remarkable 
display of eloquence on severe and experienced crit- 
ics, whose discernment may be supposed to have been 
quickened by emulation, was deep and permanent. Mr. 



280 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

Windhani; twenty years later, said that the speech de- 
served all its fame, and was, in spite of some faults 
of taste, such as were seldom wanting either in the 
literary or in the parliamentary performances of Sher- 
idan, the finest that had been delivered within the 
memory of man. Mr. Fox, about the same time, 
being asked by the late Lord Holland what was the 
best speech ever made in the House of Commons, 
assigned the first place, without hesitation, to the 
great oration of Sheridan on the Oude charge. 

When the debate was resumed, the tide ran so 
strongly against the accused that his friends were 
coughed and scraped down.^ Pitt declared himself for 
Sheridan's motion; and the question was carried by 
a hundred and seventy-five votes against sixty-eight. 

The opposition, flushed with victory and strongly 
supported by the pubHc sympathy, proceeded to bring 
forward a succession of charges relating chiefly to pe- 
cuniary transactions. The friends of Hastings were 
discouraged, and having now no hope of being able to 
avert an impeachment, were not very strenuous in their 
exertions. At length the House, having agreed to 
twenty articles of charge, directed Burke to go before 
the Lords,^ and to impeach the late Governor-General 
of High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Hastings was at 
the same time arrested by the Serjeant-at-arms, and 
carried to the bar of the Peers. 

The session was now within ten days of .its close. 
It was, therefore, impossible that any progress could 
be made in the trial till the next year. Hastings was 



WARREN HASTINGS 281 

admitted to bail; and further proceedings were post- 
poned till the Houses should re-assemble. 

When Parliament met in the following winter, the 
Commons proceeded to elect a committee for manag- 
ing the impeachment. Burke stood at the head; and 
with him were associated most of the leading mem- 
bers of the Opposition. But when the name of Fran- 
cis was read a fierce contention arose. It was said 
that Francis and Hastings were notoriously on bad 
terms, that they had been at feud during many years, 
that on one occasion their mutual aversion had im- 
pelled them to seek each other^s lives, and that it 
would be improper and indelicate to select a private 
enemy to be a public accuser. It was urged on the 
other side with great force, particularly by Mr. Wind- 
ham, that impartiality, though the first duty of a 
judge, had never been reckoned among the qualities 
of an advocate ; that in the ordinary administration 
of criminal justice among the English, the aggrieved 
party, the very last person who ought to be admitted 
into the jury-box, is the prosecutor; that what was 
wanted in a manager was, not that he should be free 
from bias, but that he should be able, well informed, 
energetic, and active. The ability and information 
of Francis were admitted; and the very animosity 
with which he was reproached, whether a virtue or a 
vice, was at least a pledge for his energy and activity. 
It seems difficult to refute these arguments. But the 
inveterate hatred borne by Francis to Hastings had 
excited general disgust. The House decided that 



282 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

Francis should not be a manager. Pitt voted with 
the majority^ Dundas with the minority. 

In the meantime, the preparations for the trial had 
proceeded rapidly; and on the 13th of February, 1788, 
the sittings of the Court commenced. There have 
been spectacles more dazzling to the eye, more gor- 
geous with jewelry and cloth of gold, more attractive 
to grown-up children, than that which was then ex- 
hibited at Westminster; but, perhaps, there never 
was a spectacle so well calculated to strike a highly 
cultivated, a reflecting, and imaginative mind. All 
the various kinds of interest which belong to the near 
and to the distant, to the present and to the past, 
were collected on one spot, and in one hour. All the 
talents and all* the accomplishments which are devel- 
oped by liberty and civilization were now displayed, 
with every advantage that could be derived both from 
co-operation and from contrast. Every step in the 
proceedings carried the mind either backward, through 
many troubled centuries, to the days when the foun- 
dations of our constitution were laid; or far away, 
over boundless seas and deserts, to dusky nations liv- 
ing under strange stars, worshipping strange gods, 
and writing strange characters from right to left. 
The high Court of Parliament was to sit, according 
to forms handed down from the days of the Plantage- 
nets, on an EngHshman accused of exercising tyranny 
over the lord of the holy city of Benares, and over the 
ladies of the princely house of Oude. 

The place was worthy of such a trial. It was the 



WARREN HASTINGS 283 

great hall of William Rufus/ the hall which had re- 
sounded with acclamations at the inauguration of 
thirty kings, the hall which had witnessed the just 
sentence of Bacon ^ and the just absolution of Somers, 
the hall where the eloquence of Strafford had for a 
moment awed and melted a victorious party inflamed 
with just resentment, the hall where Charles had con- 
fronted the High Court of Justice with the placid 
courage which has half redeemed his fame. Neither 
military nor civil pomp was wanting. The avenues 
were lined with grenadiers. The streets were kept 
clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in gold and er- 
mine, were marshalled by the heralds under Garter 
King-at-arms. The judges in their vestments of state 
attended to give advice on points of law. Near a hun- 
dred and seventy lords, three-fourths of the Upper 
House as the Upper House then was, walked in solemn 
order from their usual place of assembling to the tri- 
bunal. The junior Baron present led the way, George 
Ehott, Lord Heathfield, recently ennobled for his mem- 
orable defence of Gibraltar against the fleets and ar- 
mies of France and Spain. The long procession was 
closed by the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of the 
realm, by the great dignitaries, and by the brothers and 
sons of the King. Last of all came the Prince of Wales, 
conspicuous by his fine person and noble bearing. The 
gray old walls were hung with scarlet. The long galler- 
ies were crowded by an audience such as has rarely ex- 
cited the fears or the emulation of an orator. There 
were gathered together, from all parts of a great^ free. 



284 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

enlightened; and prosperous empire, grace and female 
loveliness, wit and learning, the representatives of 
every science and of every art. There were seated 
round the Queen the fair-haired young daughters of 
the house of Brunswick. There the Ambassadors of 
great Kings and Commonwealths gazed with admira- 
tion on a spectacle which no other country in the 
world could present. There Siddons/ in the prime of 
her majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a scene 
surpassing all the imitations of the stage. There 
the historian of the Roman Empire thought of the 
days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against 
Verres, and when, before a senate which still retained 
some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the 
oppressor of Africa. There were seen, side by side, 
the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the 
age. The spectacle had allured Reynolds from that 
easel which has preserved to us the thoughtful fore- 
heads of so many writers and statesmen, and the 
sweet smiles of so many noble matrons. It had induced 
Parr to suspend his labors in that dark and profound 
mine from which he had extracted a vast treasure of 
erudition, a treasure too often buried in the earth, too 
often paraded with injudicious and inelegant ostenta- 
tion, but still precious, massive, and splendid. There 
appeared the voluptuous charms of her to whom the 
heir of the throne had in secret plighted his faith. 
There too was she, the beautiful mother of a beautiful 
race, the Saint Cecilia whose delicate features, lighted 
up by love and music, art has rescued from the common 



WARREN HASTINGS 285 

decay. There were the members of that brilliant so- 
ciety which quoted, criticised, and exchanged repartees, 
under the rich peacock-hangings of Mrs. Montague. 
And there the ladies whose lips, more persuasive than 
those of Fox himself, had carried the Westminster elec- 
tion against palace and treasury, shone round Geor- 
giana Duchess of Devonshire. 

The Serjeants made proclamation! Hastings ad- 
vanced to the bar, and bent his knee. The culprit 
was indeed not unworthy of that great presence. He 
had ruled an extensive and populous country, had 
made laws and treaties, had sent forth armies, had 
set up and pulled down princes. And in his high 
place he had so borne himself, that all had feared 
him, that most had loved him, and that hatred itself 
could deny him no title to glory, except virtue. He 
looked like a great man, and not like a bad man. A 
person small and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from 
a carriage which, while it indicated deference to the 
court, indicated also habitual self-possession and self- 
respect, a high and intellectual forehead, a brow pen- 
sive, but not gloomy, a mouth of inflexible decision, a 
face pale and worn, but serene, on which was written, 
as legibly as under the picture in the council-chamber 
at Calcutta, Mens cequa in arduis; ^ such was the 
aspect with which the great Proconsul presented him- 
self to his judges. 

His counsel accompanied him, men all of whom 
were afterwards raised by their talents and learning 
to the highest posts in their profession, the bold and 



286 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

strong-minded Law, afterwards Chief Justice of the 
King's Bench; the more humane and eloquent Dallas, 
afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and 
Plomer who, near twenty years later, successfully con- 
ducted in the same high court the defence of Lord 
Melville, and subsequently became Vice-chancellor and 
Master of the Rolls. 

But neither the culprit nor his advocates attracted 
so much notice as the accusers. In the midst of the 
blaze of red drapery, a space has been fitted up with 
green benches and tables for the Commons. The 
managers, with Burke at their head, appeared in full 
dress. The collectors of gossip did not fail to remark 
that even Fox, generally so regardless of his appear- 
ance, had paid to the illustrious tribunal the compli- 
ment of wearing a bag and sword. ^ Pitt had refused 
to be one of the conductors of the impeachment; and 
his commanding, copious, and sonorous eloquence was 
wanting to that great muster of various talents. Age 
and blindness had unfitted Lord North for the duties 
of a public prosecutor; and his friends were left with- 
out the help of his excellent sense, his tact, and his 
urbanity. But, in spite of the absence of these two 
distinguished members of the Lower House, the box 
in which the managers stood contained an array of 
speakers such as perhaps had not appeared together 
since the great age of Athenian eloquence. There 
were Fox and Sheridan,^ the English Demosthenes 
and the English Hyperides. There was Burke, ig- 
norant, indeed, or negligent of the art of adapting his 



WARREN HASTINGS 287 

reasonings and his style to the capacity and taste of 
his hearerS; but in amplitude of comprehension and 
richness of imagination superior to every orator, 
ancient or modern. There, with eyes reverentially 
fixed on Burke, appeared the finest gentleman of the 
age, his form developed by every man]y exercise, his 
face beaming with intelligence and spirit, the ingen- 
ious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham.^ Nor, 
though surrounded by such men, did the youngest 
manager pass unnoticed. At an age when most of 
those who distinguish themselves in life are still con- 
tending for prizes and fellowships at college, he had 
won for himself a conspicuous place in Parliament. 
No advantage of fortune or connection was wanting 
that could set off to the height his splendid talents 
and his unblemished honor. At twenty-three he had 
been thought worthy to be ranked w^ith the veteran 
statesmen who appeared as the delegates of the British 
Commons, at the bar of the British nobility. All who 
stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, culprit, ad- 
vocates, accusers. To the generation which is now in 
the vigor of life, he is the sole representative of a great 
age which has passed away. But those who, within the 
last ten years, have listened with delight, till the morn- 
ing sun ^ shone on the tapestries of the House of Lords, 
to the lofty and animated eloquence of Charles Earl 
Grey, are able to form some estimate of the powers of 
a race of men among whom he was not the foremost. 
The charges and the answers of Hastings were first 
read. The ceremony occupied two whole days, and 



288 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

was rendered less tedious than it would otherwise 
have been by the silver voice and just emphasis of 
Cowper, the clerk of the court, a near relation of the 
amiable poet. On the third day Burke rose. Four 
sittings were occupied by his opening speech, which 
was intended to be a general introduction to all the 
charges. With an exuberance of thought and a splen- 
dor of diction which more than satisfied the highly 
raised expectation of the audience, he described the 
character and institutions of the natives of India, 
recounted the circumstances in which the Asiatic 
empire of Britain had originated, and set forth the 
constitution of the Company and of the English Pres- 
idencies. Having thus attempted to communicate 
to his hearers an idea of Eastern society, as vivid 
as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded 
to arraign the administration of Hastings as system- 
atically conducted in defiance of morality and pub- 
lic law. The energy and pathos of the great orator 
extorted expressions of unwonted admiration from 
the stern and hostile Chancellor, and, for a moment, 
seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the de- 
fendant. The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to 
such displays of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of 
the occasion, and perhaps not unwilling to display their 
taste and sensibility,^ were in a state of uncontrollable 
emotion. Handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling- 
bottles were handed round; hysterical sobs and screams 
were heard; and Mrs. Sheridan was carried out in a 
fit. At length the orator concluded. Raising his voice 



WARREN HASTINGS 289 

till the old arches of Irish oak resounded, '' Therefore, " 
said he, "hath it with all confidence been ordered by 
the Commons of Great Britain, that I impeach Warren 
Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I im- 
peach him in the name of the Commons' House of 
Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach 
him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient 
honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of 
the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under 
foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. 
Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name 
of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name 
of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and op- 
pressor of alii" 

When the deep murmur of various emotions had 
subsided, Mr. Fox rose to address the Lords respect- 
ing the course of proceeding to be followed. The wish 
of the accusers was that the Court would bring to a 
close the investigation of the first charge before the 
second was opened. The wish of Hastings and of his 
counsel was that the managers should open all the 
charges, and produce all the evidence for the prosecu- 
tion, before the defence began. The Lords retired 
to their own House to consider the question. The 
Chancellor took the side of Hastings. Lord Lough- 
borough, who was now in opposition, supported the 
demand of the managers. The division showed which 
way the inclination of the tribunal leaned. A major- 
ity of near three to one decided in favor of the course 
for which Hastings contended. 



290 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

When the Court sat again, Mr. Fox, assisted by Mr. 
Grey, opened the charge respecting Cheyte Sing, and 
several days were spent in reading papers and hearing 
witnesses. The next article was that relating to the 
Princesses of Oude. The conduct of this part of the 
case was intrusted to Sheridan. The curiosity of the 
public to hear him was unbounded. His sparkling and 
highly finished declamation lasted two days; but the 
Hall was crowded to suffocation during the whole time. 
It was said that fifty guineas had been paid for a sin- 
gle ticket. Sheridan, when he concluded, contrived, 
with a knowledge of stage effect which his father might 
have envied, to sink back, as if exhausted, into the 
arms of Burke, who hugged him with the energy of 
generous admiration. 

June was now far advanced. The session could not 
last much longer; and the progress which had been 
made in the impeachment was not very satisfactory. 
There were twenty charges. On two only of these 
had even the case for the prosecution been heard; and 
it was now a year since Hastings had been admitted 
to bail. 

The interest taken by the public in the trial was 
great when the Court began to sit, and rose to the 
height when Sheridan spoke on the charge relating to 
the Begums. From that time the excitement went 
down fast. The spectacle had lost the attraction of 
novelty. The great displays of rhetoric were over. 
What was behind was not of a nature to entice men 
of letters from their books in the morning, or to tempt 



WARREN HASTINGS 291 

ladies who had left the masquerade at two to be out 
of bed before eight. There remained examinations 
and cross-examinations. There remained statements 
of accounts. There remained the reading of papers, 
filled with words unintelligible to EngHsh ears, with 
lacs and crores, zemindars and aumils, sunnuds and 
perwannahs, jaghires and nuzzurs. There remained 
bickerings, not always carried on with the best taste 
or with the best temper, between the managers of the 
impeachment and the counsel for the defence, particu- 
larly between Mr. Burke and Mr. Law. There re- 
mained the endless marches and countermarches of 
the Peers between their House and the Hall; for as 
often as a point of law was to be discussed, their Lord- 
ships retired to discuss it apart; and the consequence 
was, as a Peer wittily said, that the judges walked and 
the trial stood still. 

It is to be added that, in the spring of 1788, when 
the trial commenced, no important question, either of 
domestic or foreign policy, occupied the pubHc mind. 
The proceeding in Westminster Hall, therefore, natu- 
rally attracted most of the attention of Parliament 
and of the country. It was the one great event of 
that season. But in the following year the King's 
illness, the debates on the Regency, the expectation 
of a change of ministry, completely diverted pubKc 
attention from Indian affairs; and within a fortnight 
after George the Third had returned thanks in St. 
Paul's for his recovery, the States-General of France 
met at Versailles. In the midst of the agitation pro- 



292 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

duced by these events, the impeachment was for a 
time almost forgotten. 

The trial in the Hall went on languidly. In the 
session of 1788, when the proceedings had the interest 
of novelty, and when the Peers had little other busi- 
ness before them, only thirty-five days were given to 
the impeachment. In 1789, the Regency Bill occupied 
the Upper House till the session was far advanced. 
When the King recovered the circuits were beginning. 
The judges left town; the Lords waited for the return 
of the oracles of jurisprudence; and the consequence 
was that during the whole year only seventeen days 
were given to the case of Hastings. It was clear that 
the matter would be protracted to a length unprece- 
dented in the annals of criminal law. 

In truth, it is impossible to deny that impeachment, 
though it is a fine ceremony, and though it may have 
been useful in the seventeenth century, is not a pro- 
ceeding from which much good can now be expected. 
Whatever confidence may be placed in the decision of 
the Peers on an appeal arising out of ordinary litiga- 
tion, it is certain that no man has the least confidence 
in their impartiality, when a great public functionary, 
charged with a great state crime, is brought to their 
bar. They are all politicians. There is hardly one 
among them whose vote on an impeachment may not 
be confidently predicted before a witness has been 
examined; and, even if it were possible to rely on 
their justice, they would still be quite unfit to try such a 
cause as that of Hastings. They sit only during half 



WARREN HASTINGS 293 

the year. They have to transact much legislative and 
much judicial business. The law-lords, whose advice 
is required to guide the unlearned majority, are em- 
ployed daily in administering justice elsewhere. It 
is impossible, therefore, that during a busy session, the 
Upper House should give more than a few days to an 
impeachment. To expect that their Lordships would 
give up partridge-shooting, in order to bring the great- 
est delinquent to speedy justice, or to relieve accused 
innocence by speedy acquittal, would be unreasonable 
indeed. A well-constituted tribunal, sitting regularly 
six days in the week, and nine hours in the day, would 
have brought the trial of Hastings to a close in less 
than three months. The Lords had not finished their 
work in seven years. 

The result ceased to be a matter of doubt, from the 
time when the Lords resolved that they would be 
guided by the rules of evidence which are received in 
the inferior courts of the realm. Those rules, it is 
well known, exclude much information which would 
be quite sufficient to determine the conduct of any 
reasonable man, in the most important transactions of 
private life. These rules, at every assizes, save scores 
of culprits whom judges, jury, and spectators firmly 
believe to be guilty. But when those rules were rig- 
idly applied to offences committed many years before, 
at the distance of many thousands of miles, conviction 
was, of course, out of the question. We do not blame 
the accused and his counsel for availing themselves of 
every legal advantage in order to obtain an acquittal. 



294 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

But it is clear that an acquittal obtained cannot be 
pleaded in bar of the judgment of history. 

Several attempts were made by the friends of Hast- 
ings to put a stop to the trial. In 1789 ^ they proposed 
a vote of censure upon Burke, for some violent lan- 
guage which he had used respecting the death of Nun- 
comar and the connection between Hastings and Im- 
pey. Burke was then unpopular in the last degree both 
with the House and with the country. The asperity 
and indecency of some expressions which he had used 
during the debates on the Regency had annoyed even 
his warmest friends. The vote of censure was carried; 
and those who had moved it hoped that the managers 
would resign in disgust. Burke was deeply hurt. But 
his zeal for what he considered as the cause of justice 
and mercy triumphed over his personal feelings. He 
received the censure of the House with dignity and 
meekness, and declared that no personal mortification 
or humiliation should induce him to flinch from the 
sacred duty which he had undertaken. 

In the following year the Parliament was dissolved; 
and the friends of Hastings entertained a hope that the 
new House of Commons might not be disposed to go 
on with the impeachment. They began by maintaining 
that the whole proceeding was terminated by the dis- 
solution. Defeated on this point, they made a direct 
motion that the impeachment should be dropped; but 
they were defeated by the combined forces of the Gov- 
ernment and the Opposition. It was, however, resolved 
that, for the sake of expedition, many of the articles 



WARREN HASTINGS 295 

should be withdrawn. In truth, had not some such 
measure been adopted, the trial would have lasted till 
the defendant was in his grave. 

At length, in the spring of 1795, the decision was 
pronounced; near eight years after Hastings had been 
brought by the Serjeant-at-arms of the Commons to the 
bar of the Lords. On the last day of this great pro- 
cedure the public curiosity, long suspended, seemed 
to be revived. Anxiety about the judgment there 
could be none; for it had been fully ascertained that 
there was a great majority for the defendant. Never- 
theless many wished to see the pageant, and the Hall 
was as much crowded as on the first day. But those 
who, having been present on the first day, now bore a 
part in the proceedings of the last, were few; and most 
of those few were altered men. 

As Hastings himself said, the arraignment had taken 
place before one generation, and the judgment was pro- 
nounced by another. The spectator could not look at 
the woolsack,^ or at the red benches of the Peers, or 
at the green benches of the Commons, without seeing 
something that reminded him of the instability of all 
human things, of the instability of power and fame 
and life, of the more lamentable instability of friend- 
ship. The great seal was borne before Lord Lough- 
borough, who, when the trial commenced, was a fierce 
opponent of Mr. Pitt's government, and who was now 
a member of that government, while Thurlow, who 
presided in the court when it first sat, estranged from 
all his old allies, sat scowling among the junior bar- 



296 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

ons. Of about a hundred and sixty nobles who 
walked in the procession on the first day, sixty had 
been laid in their family vaults. Still more affecting 
must have been the sight of the managers' box. What 
had become of that fair fellowship, so closely bound 
together by public and private ties, so resplendent 
with every talent and accomplishment? It had been 
scattered by calamities more bitter than the bitterness 
of death. The great chiefs were still living, and still 
in the full vigor of their genius. But their friendship 
was at an end. It had been violently and publicly dis- 
solved, with tears and stormy reproaches. If those 
men, once so dear to each other, were now compelled to 
meet for the purpose of managing the impeachment, 
they met as strangers whom public business had 
brought together, and behaved to each other with cold 
and distant civility. Burke had in his vortex whirled 
away Windham. Fox had been followed by Sheridan 
and Grey. 

Only twenty-nine Peers voted. Of these only six 
found Hastings guilty on the charges relating to Cheyte 
Sing and to the Begums. On other charges, the ma- 
jority in his favor was still greater. On some he was 
unanimously absolved. He was then called to the bar, 
was informed from the woolsack that the Lords had 
acquitted him, and was solemnly discharged. He 
bowed respectfully and retired. 

We have said that the decision had been fully ex- 
pected. It was also generally approved. At the com- 
mencement of the trial there had been a strong and 



WARREN HASTINGS 297 

indeed unreasonable feeling against Hastings. At the 
close of the trial there was a feehng equally strong 
and equally unreasonable in his favor. One cause 
of the change was, no doubt, what is commonly called 
the fickleness of the multitude, but what seems to us to 
be merely the general law of human nature. Both 
in individuals and in masses violent excitement is 
always followed by remission, and often by reaction. 
We are all inclined to depreciate whatever we have 
overpraised, and, on the other hand, to show undue 
indulgence where we have shown undue rigor. It was 
thus in the case of Hastings. The length of his trial, 
moreover, made him an object of compassion. It was 
thought, and not without reason, that, even if he was 
guilty, he was still an ill-used man, and that an im- 
peachment of eight years was more than a sufficient 
punishment. It was also felt that, though, in the 
ordinary course of criminal law, a defendant is not 
allowed to set off his good actions against his crimes, 
a great political cause should be tried on different 
principles, and that a man who had governed an em- 
pire during thirteen years might have done some very 
reprehensible things, and yet might be on the whole 
deserving of rewards and honors rather than of fine 
and imprisonment. The press, an instrument neg- 
lected by the prosecutors, was used by Hastings and 
his friends with great effect. Every ship, too, that 
arrived from Madras or Bengal, brought a cuddy full 
of his admirers. Every gentleman from India spoke 
of the late Governor-General as having deserved better. 



298 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

and having been treated worse, than any man living. 
The effect of this testimony unanimously given by all 
persons who knew the East, was naturally very great. 
Retired members of the Indian services, civil and 
military, were settled in all corners of the kingdom. 
Each of them was, of course, in his own little circle, 
regarded as an oracle on an Indian question; and they 
were, with scarcely one exception, the zealous advo- 
cates of Hastings. It is to be added, that the numer- 
ous addresses to the late Governor-General, which his 
friends in Bengal obtained from the natives and trans- 
mitted to England, made a considerable impression. 
To these addresses we attach little or no importance. 
That Hastings was beloved by the people whom he 
governed is true; but the eulogies of pundits, zemin- 
dars, Mahommedan doctors, do not prove it to be true. 
For an English collector or judge would have found 
it easy to induce any native who could write to sign 
a panegyric on the most odious ruler that ever was 
in India. It was said that at Benares, the very place 
at which the acts set forth in the first article of im- 
peachment had been committed, the natives had 
erected a temple to Hastings; and this story excited 
a strong sensation in England. Burke's observations 
on the apotheosis were admirable. He saw no reason 
for astonishment, he said, in the incident which had 
been represented as so striking. He knew something 
of the mythology of the Brahmins. He knew that 
as they worshipped some gods from love, so they 
worshipped others from fear. He knew that they 



WARREN HASTINGS 299 

erected shrines, not only to the benignant deities of 
hght and plenty, but also to the fiends who preside 
over smallpox and murder; nor did he at all dispute 
the claim of Mr. Hastings to be admitted into such 
a Pantheon. This reply has always struck us as one 
of the finest that ever was made in Parliament. It is 
a grave and forcible argument, decorated by the most 
brilliant wit and fancy. 

Hastings was, however, safe. But in everything 
except character, he would have been far better off if, 
when first impeached, he had at once pleaded guilty, 
and paid a fine of fifty thousand pounds. He was a 
ruined man. The legal expenses of his defence had 
been enormous. The expenses which did not appear 
in his attorney's bill were perhaps larger still. Great 
sums had been paid to Major Scott. Great sums had 
been laid out in bribing newspapers, rewarding pam- 
phleteers, and circulating tracts. Burke, so early as 
1790, declared in the House of Commons that twenty 
thousand pounds had been employed in corrupting the 
press. It is certain that no controversial weapon, 
from the gravest reasoning to the coarsest ribaldry, 
was left unemployed. Logan defended the accused 
Governor with great ability in prose. For the lovers 
of verse, the speeches of the managers were burlesqued 
in Simpkin's letters. It is, we are afraid, indisput- 
able that Hastings stooped so low as to court the aid 
of that malignant and filthy baboon John WilHams, 
who called himself Anthony Pasquin. It was neces- 
sary to subsidize such allies largely. The private 



300 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

hoards of Mrs. Hastings had disappeared. It is said 
that the banker to whom they had been entrusted had 
failed. Still if Hastings had practised strict economy 
he would, after all his losses, have had a moderate 
competence; but in the management of his private 
affairs he was imprudent. The dearest wish of his 
heart had always been to regain Daylesford. At 
length, in the very year in which his trial commenced, 
the wish was accomplished; and the domain, alienated 
more than seventy years before, returned to the de- 
scendant of its old lords. But the manor house was 
a ruin; and the grounds round it had, during many 
years, been utterly neglected. Hastings proceeded to 
build, to plant, to form a sheet of water, to excavate 
a grotto; and, before he was dismissed from the bar 
of the House of Lords, he had expended more than 
forty thousand pounds in adorning his seat. 

The general feeling both of the Directors and of 
the proprietors of the East India Company was that 
he had great claims on them, that his services to them 
had been eminent, and that his misfortunes had been 
the effect of his zeal for their interest. His friends 
in Leadenhall Street proposed to reimburse him the 
costs of his trial, and to settle on him an annuity of 
five thousand pounds a year. But the consent of the 
Board of Control was necessary; and at the head of 
the Board of Control was Mr. Dundas, who had him- 
self been a party to the impeachment, who had, on 
that account, been reviled with great bitterness by the 
adherents of Hastings, and who, therefore, was not in 



WARREN HASTINGS 301 

a very complying mood. He refused to consent to 
what the Directors suggested. The Directors remon- 
strated. A long controversy followed. Hastings, in 
the meantime, was reduced to such distress, that he 
could hardly pay his weekly bills. At length a com- 
promise was made. An annuity for life of four thou- 
sand pounds was settled on Hastings; and in order to 
enable him to meet pressing demands, he was to receive 
ten years' annuity in advance. The Company was 
also permitted to lend him fifty thousand pounds, to 
be repaid by instalments without interest. This relief, 
though given in the most absurd manner, was suffi- 
cient to enable the retired Governor to live in com- 
fort, and even in luxury, if he had been a skilful 
manager. But he was careless and profuse, and was 
more than once under the necessity of applying to the 
Company for assistance, which was liberally given. 

He had security and affluence, but not the power and 
dignity which, when he landed from India, he had rea- 
son to expect. He had then looked forward to a coro- 
net, a red riband,^ a seat at the Council Board, an of- 
fice at Whitehall. He was then only fifty-two, and 
might hope for many years of bodily and mental vigor. 
The case was widely different when he left the bar of 
the Lords. He was now too old a man to turn his 
mind to a new class of studies and duties. He had no 
chance of receiving any mark of royal favor while Mr. 
Pitt remained in power; and, when Mr. Pitt retired, 
Hastings was approaching his seventieth year. 

Once, and only once, after his acquittal, he inter- 



302 MACAULAY'S ESSAY 

fered in politics; and that interference was not much 
to his honor. In 1804 he exerted himself strenuously 
to prevent Mr. Addington, against whom Fox and 
Pitt had combined; from resigning the Treasury. It 
is difficult to believe that a man so able and energetic 
as Hastings can have thought that, when Bonaparte 
was at Boulogne with a great army, the defence of our 
island could safely be intrusted to a ministry which 
did not contain a single person v/hom flattery could 
describe as a great statesman. It is also certain that, 
on the important question which had raised Mr. Ad- 
dington to power, and on which he differed from both 
Fox and Pitt, Hastings, as might have been expected, 
agreed with Fox and Pitt, and was decidedly opposed 
to Addington. Religious intolerance has never been 
the vice of the Indian service, and certainly was not 
the vice of Hastings. But Mr. Addington had treated 
him with marked favor. Fox had been a principal 
manager of the impeachment. To Pitt it was owing 
that there had been an impeachment; and Hastings, 
we fear, was on this occasion guided by personal con- 
siderations, rather than by a regard to the public 
interest. 

The last twenty-four years of his life were chiefly 
passed at Daylesford. He amused himself with em- 
bellishing his grounds, riding fine Arab horses, fatten- 
ing prize-cattle, and trying to rear Indian animals and 
vegetables in England. He sent for seeds of a very 
fine custard-apple, from the garden of what had once 
been his own villa, among the green hedgerows of 



WARREN HASTINGS 303 

Allipore. He tried also to naturalize in Worcester- 
shire the delicious leechee, almost the only fruit of 
Bengal which deserves to be regretted even amidst 
the plenty of Covent Garden. The Mogul emperors, 
in the time of their greatness, had in vain attempted 
to introduce into Hindostan the goat of the table-land 
of Thibet, whose down supplies the looms of Cash- 
mere with the materials of the finest shawls. Hast- 
ings tried, with no better fortune, to rear a breed at 
Daylesford; nor does he seem to have succeeded bet- 
ter with the cattle of Bootan, whose tails are in high 
esteem as the best fans for brushing away the mos- 
quitoes. 

Literature divided his attention with his conserva- 
tbries and his menagerie. He had always loved books, 
and they were now necessary to him. Though not a 
poet, in any high sense of the word, he wrote neat and 
polished lines with great facility, and was fond of 
exercising this talent. Indeed, if we must speak out, 
he seems to have been more of a Trissotin than was 
to be expected from the powers of his mind, and from 
the great part which he had played in life. We are 
assured in these Memoirs that the first thing which 
he did in the morning was to write a copy of verses. 
When the family and guests assembled, the poem 
made its appearance as regularly as the eggs and rolls; 
and Mr. Gleig requires us to believe that, if from any 
accident Hastings came to the breakfast-table without 
one of his charming performances in his hand, the 
omission was felt by all as a grievous disappointment. 



304 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

Tastes differ widely. For ourselves, we must say that, 
however good the breakfasts at Daylesford may have 
been, — and we are assured that the tea was of the most 
aromatic flavor, and that neither tongue nor venison- 
pasty was wanting, — we should have thought the reck- 
oning high if we had been forced to earn our repast by 
listening every day to a new madrigal or sonnet com- 
posed by our host. We are glad, however, that Mr. 
Gleig has preserved this little feature of character, 
though we think it by no means a beauty. It is good 
to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human na- 
ture, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust on 
the weaknesses which are found in the strongest minds. 
Dionysius in old times, Frederic in the last century, 
with capacity and vigor equal to the conduct of the 
greatest affairs, united all the little vanities and affecta- 
tions of provincial blue-stockings. These great exam- 
ples may console the admirers of Hastings for the afflic- 
tion of seeing him reduced to the level of the Hayleys 
and Sewards. 

When Hastings had passed many years in retire- 
ment, and had long outlived the common age of men, 
he again became for a short time an object of general 
attention. In 1813 the charter of the East India 
Company was renewed; and much discussion about 
Indian affairs took place in Parliament. It was deter- 
mined to examine witnesses at the bar of the Com- 
mons; and Hastings was ordered to attend. He had 
appeared at that bar once before. It was when he 
read his answer to the charges which Burke had laid 



WARB.EN HASTINGS 305 

on the table. Since that time twenty-seven years had 
elapsed; public feeling had undergone a complete 
change; the nation had now forgotten his faults, and 
remembered only his services. The reappearance, 
too, of a man who had been among the most distin- 
guished of a generation that had passed away, who 
now belonged to history, and who seemed to have 
risen from the dead, could not but produce a solemn 
and pathetic effect. The Commons received him with 
acclamations, ordered a chair to be set for him, and, 
when he retired, rose and uncovered. There were, 
indeed, a few who did not sympathize with the gen- 
eral feeling. One or two of the managers of the im- 
peachment were present. They sate in the same 
seats which they had occupied when they had been 
thanked for the services which they had rendered in 
Westminster Hall ; for, by the courtesy of the House, 
a member who has been thanked in his place is con- 
sidered as having a right always to occupy that place. 
These gentlemen were not disposed to admit that 
they had employed several of the best years of their 
lives in persecuting an innocent man. They accordingly 
kept their seats, and pulled their hats over their 
brows; but the exceptions only made the prevailing 
enthusiasm more remarkable. The Lords received the 
old man with similar tokens of respect. The Univer- 
sity of Oxford conferred on him the degree of Doctor 
of Laws; and in the Sheldonian Theatre the under- 
graduates welcomed him with tumultuous cheering. 
These marks of public esteem were soon followed 



306 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

by marks of royal favor. Hastings was sworn of the 
Privy Council, and was admitted to a long private 
audience of the Prince Regent, who treated him very 
graciously. When the Emperor of Russia and the 
King of Prussia visited England, Hastings appeared 
in their train both at Oxford and in the Guildhall of 
London, and, though surrounded by a crowd of princes 
and great warriors, was everywhere received with marks 
of respect and admiration. He was presented by the 
Prince Regent both to Alexander and to Frederic Wil- 
liam; and his Royal Highness went so far as to de- 
clare in pubUc that honors far higher than a seat in 
the Privy Council were due, and would soon be paid, 
to the man who had saved the British dominions 
in Asia. Hastings now confidently expected a peer- 
age; but from some unexplained cause, he was again 
disappointed. 

He lived about four years longer, in the enjoyment 
of good spirits, of faculties not impaired to any pain- 
ful or degrading extent, and of health such as is rarely 
enjoyed by those who attain such an age. At length, 
on the twenty-second of August 1818, in the eighty- 
sixth year of his age, he met death with the same 
tranquil and decorous fortitude which he had opposed 
to all the trials of his various and eventful life. 

With all his faults, — and they were neither few nor 
small, — only one cemetery was worthy to contain his 
remains. In that temple of silence and reconciliation 
where .the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, 
in the Great Abbey which has during many ages af- 



WARREN HASTINGS 307 

forded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and 
bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the 
Great Hall, the dust of the illustrious accused should 
have mingled with the dust of the illustrious accusers. 
This was not to be. Yet the place of interment was 
not ill chosen. Behind the chancel of the parish church 
of Daylesford, in earth which already held the bones 
of many chiefs of the house of Hastings, was laid the 
coffin of the greatest man who has ever borne that 
ancient and widely extended name. On that very spot 
probably, fourscore years before, the little Warren, 
meanly clad and scantily fed, had played with the chil- 
dren of ploughmen. Even then his young mind had 
revolved plans which might be called romantic. Yet, 
however romantic, it is not likely that they had been 
so strange as the truth. Not only had the poor orphan 
retrieved the fallen fortunes of his line. Not only had 
he repurchased the old lands, and rebuilt the old dwell- 
ing. He had preserved and extended an empire. He 
had founded a polity. He had administered govern- 
ment and war with more than the capacity of Richelieu. 
He had patronized learning with the judicious liberality 
of Cosmo. He had been attacked by the most formid- 
able combination of enemies that ever sought the de- 
struction of a single victim ; and over that combination, 
after a struggle of ten years, he had triumphed. He 
had at length gone down to his grave in the fulness 
of age, in peace, after so many troubles, in honor, after 
so much obloquy. 

Those who look on his character without favor or 



308 MACAU LAY'S ESSAY 

malevolence will pronounce that, in the two great 
elements of all social virtue, in respect for the rights 
of others, and in sympathy for the sufferings of others, 
he was deficient. His principles were somewhat lax. 
His heart was somewhat hard. But though we cannot 
with truth describe him either as a righteous or as a 
merciful ruler, we cannot regard without admiration 
the am.plitude and fertility of his intellect, his rare 
talents for command, for administration, and for con- 
troversy, his dauntless courage, his honorable poverty, 
his fervent zeal for the interests of the state, his noble 
equanimity, tried by both extremes of fortune, and 
never disturbed by either. 



NOTES 



LORD CLIVE 

23, 1. Every schoolboy knows. Rather a hyperbole, save 
in such rare cases as that of Macaulay himself who began his 
reading at the age of three. 

2. Montezuma Atahualpa. See Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, 
Bk. IV, Chap. Ill, for an account of the defeat of Montezuma II, 
ninth King of Mexico, by Hernando Cortez; Conquest of Peru 
(Bk. II, Chap. VII, Prescott), for an account of the treachery of 
Pizarro, the Spanish conqueror of Peru, toward Atahualpa. 

3. The battle of Buxar, where Sir Hector Munro defeated 
the forces of Meer Cossim, Nabob of Patna, and the Nabob of 
Oude, in 1764, thereby winning for the English the province of 
Oude. 

4. The massacre of Patna. Meer Cossim captured the town 
of Patna in 1763, and massacred in cold blood two hundred de- 
fenseless English prisoners. 

5. Surajah Dowlah. Nabob of Bengal. Oude and Travan- 
core represent extreme ends of India. 

6. Holkar. A Hindoo Mahratta chief, one of the most for- 
midable enemies of the English, who died in 1811. 

7. The victories of Cortes were gained over savages. Con- 
sult Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, and the article on "Mexico " 
in the Encyclopedia Britannica for information on the civiliza- 
tion of Mexico at this time. 

8. Harquebusier. An arquebuss was a gun fired from a rest. 

24, 1. Buildings more beautiful. Shah Jehan's palace at 
Shah-Jehanpoor, the Jumna Mosque, the Temple at Ajmir. 

2. Ferdinand the Catholic. A title given to Ferdinand V 
of Navarre, in whose reign the Inquisition was estabhshed in 
Spain, and the New World was discovered by Columbus. 

3. The Great Captain. Gonsalvo Hernandez de Cordova, 
who won his title in the wars against the Moors, under Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and in the recovery of Naples from the French. 

4. One of the greatest empires in the world. The area of Brit- 

309 



310 NOTES 

ish India, including Burmah, is 1,800,258 square miles, or nearly 
one half that of the United States, excluding Alaska. 

5. Mr. Mill's book. History of India, 1818, by James Mill; 
father of John Stuart Mill, writer on economicsr^ 

6. Orme, Robert. Author of History of British India 1763- 
1788. 

7. Lord Powis, Edward. Eldest son of Clive, Earl of Powis, 
1804. 

25, 1. Whose love passes the love of biographers. One of 
the many instances where Macaulay paraphrases Biblical diction. 
See 2 Sam. i, 26, for the original. 

26, 1. The old seat of his ancestors. Styche, in the parish of 
Moreton Tay. 

2. One of his uncles. A remark made by Mr. Bayle of Hope 
Hall, near Manchester, in a letter written 1732, Olive's seventh 
year. 

27, 1. From school to school. Lostock in Cheshire, Mer- 
chant Taylors' school, and a private school in Hemel Hemp- 
stead, Hertfordshire. 

2. A writership. The lowest office in the East India Com- 
pany, a clerkship, or accountantship. For an account of the 
founding of the East India Company see Macaulay 's History of 
England, Chap. XVIII. Originally a mere trading company, 
with fortified posts at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay; the Com- 
pany determined, in 1689, to become ''a nation in India," but 
until dive's victory at Plassey nothing was done to reahze this 
ambition. 

3. East India College. Estabhshed by the Company to train 
men for the Indian Service. Made a public school when India 
came under the Civil Service System, 1858. 

28, 1. The prophet's gourd. See Jonah iv. 

29, 1. The Carnatic. The Deccan. Rich provinces of 
Southern India. 

2. There is still a Nabob. In 1857 the Sepoy Mutiny broke 
out. After it had been suppressed Parliament transferred the 
government of India to the Crown, and in 1877 the Sovereign 
took the title, Empress of India, thus occupying the position 
formerly held by "the Great Mogul," as the hereditary rulers of 
India, descendants of Baber, were called. 

31, 1. Wallenstein. The great general of the Imperialists 
in the Thirty Years' War, the hero of Schiller's great dramatic 
trilogy. 

2. War of the Austrian Succession 1740-1748. England 
supported Queen Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI of 
Austria, in her attempt to claim the crown, against the Elector 



NOTES 311 

of Bavaria, who was aided by Frederick II of Prussia and the 
Bourbon King of France. 

32, 1. Labourdonnais. Bertrand Frangois Mahe de la 
Bourdonnais entered the service of the French East India Com- 
pany at the age of nineteen, and soon rose to distinction. In 
1734 he became Governor of lie de France. On his return to 
France he was arrested and imprisoned for three years in the 
Bastile on the charge of Dupleix that he had taken bribes at 
Madras. He was finally acquitted. 

2. Dupleix, Joseph. Head of the factory at Chandernagore, 
who made this post of the French Company so prosperous that 
in 1742 he was made Governor of Pondicherry, and director 
general of the French factories in India. He was recalled to 
France in disgrace, and died nine years later in poverty, 1763. 

33, 1. Major Lawrence. For twenty years a distinguished 
soldier of the East India Company. The Company erected a 
monument to his memory in Westminster after his death, 
1774. 

2. Peace. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748. England 
gained nothing by it. 

34, 1. "The House of Tamerlane." Tamerlane, or Tamer 
the Lame, a Mongol Chief, invaded India in 1398, and his de- 
scendants formed the Mongol or Mogul djoiasty; the power 
weakening with the death of Aurungzebe the last really " Great " 
Mogul. 

2. The beauty and magnificence of the buildings. The 
imperial palace at Delhi, the Taj Mahal and the Pearl Mosque at 
Ogno are among the best known. Sir Thomas Roe (1580-1644) 
gives an interesting account of the splendors he witnessed in his 
embassy to Jehangir, 1615. 

35, 1. Aurungzebe. The last of the great rulers of India. 

2. Theodosius. The last great emperor of the East. After 
his death the boundaries of Rome steadily receded, while queen 
mothers and barbarian generals ruled in turn the enfeebled 
princelings who bore the name of emperor. 

3. Carlo vingians. The name given to the descendants of 
Charlemagne, who proved as incapable of ruling as the descend- 
ants of Theodosius, and were known, not as their great ancestor 
had been, by deeds, but by such physical or mental attributes as 
"The Bald," "The Fat," "The Simple." 

36, 1. Pirates of the Northern Sea. The Northmen or Vik- 
ings, under Rollo, or Rolf the Ganger, invaded Normandy and 
later penetrated to the Mediterranean. 

2. The Hungarian. Attila the Hun, "The Scourge of God," 
who in 432-452 ravaged Central Europe, 



312 NOTES 

Gog and Magog. Used by Ezekiel xxxviii-xxxix as the sym- 
bol of earthly violence arrayed against the people of God. 
3. Campania. The present site of Naples and its environs. 

37, 1. Bang, or hasheesh. A Turkish drug, made of dried 
hemp leaves, producing intoxication and deep stupor. 

2. A Persian Conqueror. Nadir Shah in 1739, carried off 
over fifty million dollars' worth of plunder, including the Peacock 
Throne built for Shah Jehan in his palace at Delhi, at a cost of 
six and a half million sterling. It was ornamented with the 
figure of a peacock with outspread tail, the colors being imitated 
in gems. Shah Nadir also carried off the Kohinoor, or " Moun- 
tain of Light," a famous diamond. It was given by Runjert 
Sing, "Lion of the Punjab " to the idol Jagannath or Jugger- 
naut at Orissa, but in 1849 came into the possession of the East 
India Company, who in 1850 presented it to Queen Victoria. 

38, 1. Mahrattas. A warlike tribe of India, the bitter foes 
of the English. 

2. Redeemed their harvests. An annual ransom, equal to 
one-fourth the revenue, termed the chout, was levied by Siraji, 
founder of the Mahratta power. 

3. The Mahratta ditch. Made at Calcutta in 1742 as a de- 
fense against the Mahrattas who, under Meer Hubert, were lay- 
ing waste Bengal. 

40, 1. Burrampooter. Now spelled Brahmaputra. Hydas- 
pes. The Jhilam, a tributary of the Indus, one of the five rivers 
of the Punjab. 

2. Dictate terms of peace at Ava. The treaty ceding Aracan 
was signed at Ava in central Burmah, February 24, 1826. It 
typifies the eastern extremity as Candahar in Afghanistan does 
the western. 

3. Saxe or Frederic. Maurice, Comte de Saxe, Marshal of 
France, one of the most famous generals of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, as was also Frederick the Great, of Prussia. 

41, 1. Nizam al Mulk. The son of a favorite of Aurungzebe, 
who had managed to make himself independent as Nizam of 
Hyderabad. 

42, 1. Anaverdy Khan. Through the murder of a young 
prince entrusted to his care, he seized the power in the Carnatic. 
For years he played fast and loose with the French and English, 
but was finally killed by the latter in a battle near Arcot, 1750. 

2. Sepoy. A corruption of Sipoohi, the Hindastanee for 
soldier. 

3. The eloquence of Burke. The speech on the Nabob of 
Arcot's debts, delivered by Edmund Burke in 1785, ranks as one 
of his finest efforts, for wealth of imagery, invective and sarcasm. 



NOTES 313 

44 1. Mirzapha Jung. He was killed soon after, while 
fighting against three Nabobs who had been discontented with 
his manner of rewarding them. , ^ 

48, 1. Tenth Legion of Caesar. The legion on whom Caesar 

most rehed. . ,. . . ^ ., t • i 

2. The Old Guard of Napoleon. A division of the Imperial 
Guard, formed by Napoleon, 1809. No soldier could enter it till 
he had served with distinction four campaigns in the line or as 
a member of the Young Guard. It served with distinction at 
Waterloo, was disbanded by Louis XVIII in 1815, reorganized 
by Napoleon III, 1854, and served in the Crimean War. 

49, 1. Hosein, the son of Ali. Ali was the cousin of Mo- 
hammed, and his first disciple. He married Fatima, the favorite 
daughter of Mohammed, hence his followers and descendants 
were called Fatimites. He was killed in 661. His adherents 
claimed that he was the first rightful Caliph. His son, Hosein, 
was murdered in 680. The anniversary of his death is kept on 
September 14, and is known as the ''Muharrem." 

2. Prophet of God. The Mohammedan creed declares 
"There is no God but God and Mohammed is His prophet." 

50 1. The Houris. Those who die in defense or practice of 
the Moslem faith pass at once to Paradise. 

54, 1. Captain Bobadil. See Ben Jonson's play Every Man 
in His Humor, in which this bragging coward is a leading char- 

2. Bussy. Charles Joseph PaHssier, Marquis de Bussy- 
Castelnan, died at Pondicherry 1785. 

55, 1. Chunda Sahib. Deserted by his own offacers. 
Chunda Sahib surrendered to the general of the Tanjore troops 
expecting to escape in disguise. He was betrayed and claimed 
by the English, Mahomet Ali, and the Mahrattas. To escape from 
the difficulty of decision, the general put him to death. 

56, 1 Crimps and flash-houses. Crimps were kidnappers 
of men, who entrapped them and held them till they could sell 
them to the army or navy. Flash-houses were kept by persons 
of low character as a store house for stolen goods. 

2. Maskelyne, the eminent mathematician. Dr. Nevil 
Maskelyne, best known for his Astronomical Observations of which 
it has been said that these volumes contain all the essentials ot 
modern astronomy. . ^ -^- ^ r j c 

59, 1. Newcastle. The Prime Minister, and First Lord ot 
the Treasury was so incompetent, that, when in 1756, the Seven 
Years' War was plainly inevitable, there were only three regiments 
in England fit for service. It is no wonder that defeat followed 
until he resigned and Pitt, the " Great Commoner " took his place. 



314 NOTES. 

2. Cornish boroughs. Until the Reform Act of 1832, ended 
the evil, many little hamlets or even farms that had once been 
villages, sent one or two representatives to Parliament, while 
the great modern cities sent none. These were called "rotten" 
or sometimes ''pocket " boroughs as they were practically in the 
pocket of the owner of the land to give or sell at will. 

60, 1. Committee of the whole House. Similar to our 
American "Committee of the Whole." 

2. Division after division. In order to ascertain a vote, the 
members of Parliament are separated into sides. 

63, 1. Chandernagore. Twenty miles above Calcutta, at 
one time a French post, taken by the English in 1757, restored 
to France 1763, retaken by English in 1794, again restored to 
France in 1816. 

2. Chowringhee. At the time Macaulay wrote, one of the 
chief suburbs of Calcutta. 

3. The Course. A noted pleasure drive in Calcutta. 

64, 1. Aliverdy Khan. A Tartar adventurer, Mohammed 
Ah, who managed, by plot and conspiracy, to get control of 
Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, three of the chief native states. He 
was one of the most remarkable men of his age, intelligent in all 
affairs, encouraging the deserving of every profession, affable in 
manner, wise in statecraft, courageous in warfare, and possessed 
of every noble quality. 

65, 1. Fort William. The chief defense of Calcutta. 

66, 1. The fort was taken. For forty-eight hours Mr. Hol- 
well directed the defense of the fort. Repeated signals of dis- 
tress were made to the vessels anchored below the town, any one 
of which might with perfect safety have attempted a rescue; 
but not a vessel moved to the assistance of the fort. 

67, 1. Ugolino. Count Ugolino of Pisa was starved to death 
with his children by Archbishop Ruggieri, a fellow-conspirator 
and later a bitter enemy. Dante represents him frozen with 
Ruggieri in a lake of ice, gnawing his murderer's skull. 

69, 1. The expedition sailed. It arrived at Fulta, twenty 
miles from Calcutta, December 10, after traversing a distance 
nearly as great as that from London to Liverpool. 

79, 1. The furies. In the Greek theology the Furies or 
Eumenides represented the avenging forces of the moral order 
of the world, and were believed never to rest till the expiation 
for every crime had been made. 

2. The army of the Nabob. It consisted almost entirely of 
Rajputs, soldiers from childhood, and for centuries the most 
distinguished warriors of Hindoostan. 

81, 1. An empire larger than Great Britain. To-day Eng- 



NOTES 315 

land possesses practically the entire peninsula, having an area 
equal to nearly half that of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, 
and a population more than one-fifth that of the world. 

84, 1. Machiavelli. An unscrupulous Italian statesman 
whose name has become a synonym for the use of craft rather 
than honest means. 

2. Borgia. Cesare Borgia, an Italian primate of the church; 
one of the most evil men that ever lived. 

87, 1. The shower of wealth. Chve gives the following de- 
tails in his letter to the directors : — " The substance of the treaty 
with the Nabob is as follows: (I) Confirmation of the mint and 
all other grants in the treaty with the late Nabob. (II) An Alli- 
ance, offensive and defensive, against all enemies. (Ill) The 
French factories and effects to be delivered up, and they were 
permitted to resettle in any of the provinces. (IV) One hundred 
lacs of rupees, {£ 1,000,000) to be paid to the Company in con- 
sideration for the losses at Calcutta and the expenses of the cam- 
paign. (V) Fifty lacs to be given to the English sufferers at the 
loss of Calcutta. (VI) Twenty lacs to Gentoos, Moors and black 
sufferers at the loss of Calcutta. (VII) Seven lacs to the Arme- 
nian sufferers. These last three donations to be distributed at the 
pleasure of the Admiral and gentlemen of the council, including 
me. (VIII) The entire property of lands within the Mahratta 
ditch which runs round Calcutta to be vested in the Company; 
also 600 yards all round without said ditch. (IX) The Company 
to have the Zemindary (power to collect revenue) to the south of 
Calcutta lying between the lake and the river and reaching as 
far as Culpee, they paying the customary rents paid by former 
Zemindars to the government. (X) Whenever the assistance of 
the English troops shall be wanted, their extraordinary charge 
to be paid by the Nabob. (XI) No forts to be erected by the 
government on the riverside from Hooghly downward. (XII) The 
foregoing articles to be performed without delay as soon as 
Meer Jaffier becomes Bubahdai." This secured to the Lords of 
Fort William the monoply of trade in all districts watered by the 
Ganges. 

2. Florin. A coin made by the Florentines, worth about six 
shillings. The modern Enghsh florin is worth about two shillings. 

3. Byzant, or bezant. A gold coin first struck at Byzantium, 
worth about fifteen pounds sterling in English money. 

4. Before any European ship. After the Latin conquest of 
Constantinople, in which Venice took part, she received for her 
services many islands and important trading posts on the coast 
of Asia Minor, which formed the starting point of her great 
eastern trade. 



316 NOTES 

88, 1. The biographer. Mill claims, and Malcolm reiterates, 
that there was no law to forbid Olive's acceptance of the money. 
Marlborough, for his victory at Blenheim, was made Prince of 
Mindelheim, by the Emperor Joseph I ; Nelson, for the battle of the 
Nile, was made Duke of Bronte by King Ferdinand of Naples; 
Wellington, for the battle of Vittoria, was made Duke of Vittoria 
by King Ferdinand VII of Spain, yet all were English generals. 

91, 1. The viceroy ... of Oude. Surajah Dowlah. The 
Nabobs of Oude, independent since 1753, had long been hered- 
itary viziers of the empire. The power of Oude was broken by 
the battle of Buxar, 1764. 

92, 1 . The tract . . . north of the Carnatic. Four provinces 
called the Northern Circars had been ceded to Bussy by the 
Nizam of Hyderabad, 1753. 

94, 1. Quit-rent. Money paid in discharge of services which 
would otherwise be due. 

95, 1. Batavia. Capital of the Dutch possessions in Java. 

97, 1. Raised to the Irish peerage as Baron Plassey. 

2. Pitt. Grandson of a governor of Madras and therefore 
especially interested in Olive's work. 

3. That memorable period. The year 1759 saw the defeat 
of the French at Minden, and off Oape Lagos; the capture of 
Quebec, and the annihilation of the French fleet off Quebec Bay. 
While in India Forde and Oorte wrested from them the Four 
Circars. 

4. The admiration of the King of Prussia. Frederick the 
Great, foremost soldier of his day, is reported to have said of a 
young volunteer who had asked to join the Duke of Brunswick's 
division, " What can he get by attending the Duke of Brunswick? 
If he desires to learn the art of war, let him go to Olive." 

5. No reporters. The publication of debates was considered 
a breach of privilege until 1771. A gallery for reporters was 
erected in the House after the fire of 1834. 

6. His single victory over the Young Pretender at Culloden, 

98, 1. Conway, General Henry, who served during the Seven 
Years' War. 

2. Granby, John Manners, who served in the continental 
wars. 

3. Sackville, Lord George Germain, refused to charge the 
retreating French at Minden. In consequence he was court- 
martialled and declared forever unworthy to serve his country 
as a soldier. 

4. A foreign general. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick led 
the allied German and English forces. 

99, 1. Wilkes. See Greene's History of the English People, 



NOTES 317 

Bk. IX, Chap. I. He established the right of the press to dis- 
cuss pubhc affairs. 

100, 1. Board of Control. Established by Pitt's India Bill, 
1784, and invested with authority over the Company. Before 
this the Court of Directors, twenty-four in number, chosen by the 
Proprietors from their own number, had supreme control. Any 
man who held ;!^500 or more of stock in the Company was a 
Proprietor. 

102, 1. Leadenhall Street. A street in London where the 
East India Company's House was situated. 

2. South Sea year. Founded in 1711, for trade with South 
America, the South Sea Company in expectation of immense 
profits, inflated its stock to enormous values, leading many poor 
people to invest in it. The bubble burst in 1720, ruining great 
numbers. 

103, 1. As Clive once said. In his speech on East India 
Judicature bill, Clive says, ''The native trader lays his bags of 
silver before the Company's servant to-day; gold to-morrow; 
jewels the next day; and if all these fail he then tempts him in 
the way of his profession, which is trade. In short, flesh and 
blood can not bear it." 

2. The Roman proconsul. Lucius Licinius LucuUus. In 
Roman provinces the chief officer was termed proconsul or pro- 
praetor; having served in the highest offices at Rome, he was 
sent to a province to command the legions there and usually to 
act as greedy despot, though supposed to rule for the safety and 
enrichment of Rome. 

104, 1. Spanish viceroy. Possibly Pizarro, or Cortes. 

105, 1. Thicker than the loins. See I Kings xii, 10. 

106, 1. The Mussulman historian. Seid Ghilam Hoslin 
Khan, author of the Sujar-ul-Muta-Okharim or Manners of the 
Moderns, an account of the last seven emperors of Hindoostan 
and the wars of the Enghsh in Bengal until 1783. 

107, 1. The Sepoys. The first Sepoy mutiny took place in 
1764, at Patna. It was put down by Major Munro, who blew 
twenty men from the guns. 

2. Verres and Pizarro. Caius Verres, Praetor of Sicily, 
74-72 B. c, so misgoverned that the Sicilians brought accusations 
against him before the Roman Senate. Cicero pleaded their 
cause against Verres. 

113, 1. Accused by historians. Mill, with unusual narrow- 
ness, calls Clive's arrangement " A proceeding in its own nature 
shameful." 

114, 1. Cashiered. Dismissed from service in a manner 
amounting almost to disgrace. 



318 NOTES 

115, 1. One of the conspirators. Lieutenant Stainsforth 
was reported to Clive as having expressed an intention of killing 
Clive rather than have the conspiracy broken up. 

116, 1. Ricimers and Odoacers. Count Ricimer, commander 
of barbarian forces in the service of Rome, was Patrician of 
Rome during the fifth century. Odoacer, son of one of Attila's 
officers, was elected King of Rome by his army in 476. 

2. Theodoric, after the downfall of Odoacer, forced Zeno, Em- 
peror of the East, to acknowledge him as ruler of the West. 

3. The last drivelling Chilperics. The latest Merovingian 
kings, many of whom bore the name of Chilperic or of Childeric, 
were mere shadow kings, — do-nothing kings they were called, — • 
puppets in the hands of their nominal servants, the mayors of 
the palace, Charles Martel, hero of the battle of Tours, and his 
son, Pepin le Bref, father of Charlemagne, and founder of the 
Carlovingian line. 

120, 1. Fanner-general. One of the class of tax-collectors in 
France who acquired enormous wealth by oppression and ex- 
tortion. They were of plebeian birth and despised by the no- 
bility. 

121, 1. Domesday Book. After the Norman Conquest 
William I, in 1086, had a census made out of every estate in 
England. 

2. Turcaret. The hero of a comedy, written by Le Sage 
1709; he is an unprincipled, stupid financier, the dupe of a clever 
baroness. 

3. Monsieur Jourdain. The hero of Moliere's Le Bourgeois 
Gentilhomme, a newly rich commoner, who makes himself ridic- 
ulous by aping the manners of the nobles. 

122, 1. The dilettante. A society estabhshed in 1734, by 
several widely traveled noblemen and gentlemen, who were 
anxious to introduce into England a taste for the fine arts, 

2. The maccaroni. The name given to men of fashion, or 
dandies, especially those who had completed the Italian tour 
where maccaroni was the favorite dish. 

3. Foote, Samuel. Author of many comedies popular in the 
eighteenth century. 

4. Chairmen. Bearers of the Sedan chair, a covered chair, 
carried by two men, a favorite means of conveyance at this time. 

5. Jaghires. Land revenue, given by the Indian govern- 
ment to an individual, for government purposes or for his own 
use, — in the latter case usually a reward for some service. 

6. Mackenzie. A Scotch writer, novelist and dramatist, as 
well as critic. 

7. Cowper. See Cowper's poem Expostulation, lines 364-375. 



NOTES 319 

123, 1. Spartan temperance. The supremacy of Sparta over 
the other Greek cities was largely due to the plainness, tem- 
perance and simplicity of the life of her citizens. In this they 
were the exact opposite of the people of Sybaris, a town of 
Italy, who gave themselves up to all luxury, and so have given 
us the word Sybarite. 

124, 1. Sir Matthew Mite. A returned East India merchant 
in Foote's play The Nabob. 

125, 1. William Huntington, S. S. An eccentric man, half 
sincere, half charlatan, who after a wild life, became a Methodist 
minister, giving himself the degree S. S,, "Sinner Saved." 

127, 1. Adam Smith. Author of the Wealth of Nations. 
See Bk. IV, Chap. V. 

128, 1. Strange malady. A sort of melancholy, in which 
for nearly three years he remained aloof from the world; termi- 
nating after a brief return to Parliament, in apoplexy. 

2. Middlesex election. In 1769 Middlesex sent John Wilkes 
to Parliament. The House refused to receive him; the Middle- 
sex electors insisted that they could send whom they chose to 
Parliament. After a hot struggle the House finally conceded the 
right. 

129, 1. His spurs chopped off. He had been created a 
Knight of the Bath; to chop off his spurs would mean to degrade 
and expel him from the order. 

131, 1. The House rose. Adjourned. 

132, 1. Bruce. Who stabbed a suspected foe, John Comyn, 
in a church; Maurice, who deserted the Protestants for Charles V 
to become Elector of Saxony, and then deserted the emperor for 
the Protestants; William the Silent, suspected of the murder of 
his wife; William III of England, his fame marred by the Massa- 
cre of Glencoe; Murray, who plotted his own sister's downfall; 
Cosimo de' Medici, suspected of murder; Henry IV, twice a 
traitor to his faith; Peter the Great, a mighty ruler, and a blood- 
thirsty murderer. 

133, 1. Henry VII' s Chapel. One of the most beautiful 
chapels of Westminster, the home of the insignia of the Knights 
of the Bath. 

2. Burgoyne. Of Revolutionary fame. 

134, 1. The previous question. A usual nieans of putting 
an end to debate is to move " the previous question." 

136, 1. Rejoiceth exceedingly. Job iii, 22. 

138, 1. Ghizni. Captured in 1839 by the Enghsh, thus enab- 
ling them to maintain Afghanistan as a barrier against Russia. 

2. Alexander the Great, victorious at twenty-two; Cond6 of 
France, at twenty-one; Charles XII of Sweden at eighteen. 



320 NOTES 

139, 1. The Sacred Way. Roman triumphs passed along 
the Via Sacra. 

2. Antiochus of Syria, defeated by Scipio Asiaticus; Tigranes 
of Armenia, defeated by Pompey, 

140, 1. Munroe. Governor of Madras, 1820; Elphinstone 
of Bombay 1819-1827, one of the most celebrated British Indian 
statesmen; Metcalfe, acting Governor General 1835. 

2. Lucullus. One of the conquerors of Tigranes ; Trajan, Em- 
peror of Rome, conqueror of Dacia; builder of Column of Trajan. 

3. Turgot. Minister of France under Louis XVI ; he might 
have averted the Revolution, but for the folly of Louis. 

4. Bentinck. Governor General of India 1828-1835. He in- 
troduced many noteworthy reforms; and was the first to rule 
India for the Hindoo people. 



WARREN HASTINGS 

143, 1. Like most of Macaulay's Essays, this was called forth 
by the appearance of a book on the subject, one of which, as in 
the case of the essay on Addison, he did not approve. It is in- 
teresting to remember, in studying his comments on what 
Hastings was and did, his own admission that he had little gift 
for interpreting a man's inner nature; that he judged, as a critic 
says, by deeds rather than by motives; by facts rather than by 
theories. . 

2. Uncovered. A sign of honor usually reserved for royalty. 

144, 1. Danish sea-king. Hastings was one of the sea- 
kings finally defeated and driven from England by Alfred, 
896. 

2. Renowned Chamberlain. Famed in Shakespeare's Richard 
III. 

3. White Rose. In the Enghsh Civil War 1455-1485 the 
house of York chose the White Rose, that of Lancaster the Red 
Rose as its emblem. It was ended by the accession of the Tudor 
Henry VII. 

145, 1. Mint at Oxford. Oxford was the Royalist head- 
quarters as London was the Parliamentary, 

2. Living. A term used in England to signify position of 
clergymen in a parish; usually a part of some great estate whose 
owner presented the "living " to a friend, or even at times sold 
it; a condition largely responsible for placing over a parish a man 
in no way fit for the office. 

3. Tithes. Originally a tenth part of one's substance, given, 
in accordance with God's command to the Israelites, for the sup- 



NOTES 321 

port of the Church. Now, money or suppHes given for church 
support. 

147, 1. Westminster school. Founded by Queen EHzabeth, 
having in its gift three two-year scholarships at Christ Church, 
Oxford, given annually, valued at $400 each. 

2. Cowper. As famous, perhaps, in literature as Hastings in 
history. 

148, 1. His spirit had been severely tried. Cowper was sub- 
ject to fits of melancholy in which he beheved his soul irretriev- 
ably lost. 

2. Choice between innocence and greatness. Bear this in 
mind, to show wherein Hastings had to make the choice and 
what it was. 

149, 1. Hexameters. An EngHsh education sets high value 
on Latin, regarding proficiency in its use, especially in writing 
Latin verse, as the final mark of scholarship. 

2. Writer ship. Each trading center in India employed mer- 
chants, senior and junior, who conducted the trade; factors, 
who ordered and inspected and dispatched goods; writers, who 
were clerks and bookkeepers. In five years a writer became a 
factor, in three more a merchant. The senior merchants were 
chosen the members of the Council, and from these the presi- 
dent who directed affairs at the factory, as the place was called 
where the factors did business. 

3. East India Company. Original charter granted to a 
company of London merchants by Elizabeth in 1600, giving ex- 
clusive right to trade in the whole of the Indian and Pacific 
Oceans. In 1612 the Company obtained permission from sev- 
eral native princes, to establish trading posts or factories on the 
coast of Hindoostan. Madras was established in 1640, Calcutta 
in 1645, and Bombay in 1665 as the chief posts. In 1662, 
Charles II gave the Company permission to make war on the 
native princes, a permission used for nearly two centuries. A 
constitution was established in 1702, and the charter several 
times renewed, but with steadily lessening powers, until by the 
Act of 1858, its powers were transferred to the crown. 

4. Dupleix. Governor of French possessions in Southern 
India. (Consult map for places mentioned.) Clive, pp. 32, 40. 

5. Carnatic. A name given to the southeastern part of the 
peninsula; war of succession. Clive, pp. 40-43. 

6. Bengal. Now largest and most populous of twelve great 
divisions of British India. Then, the region between the Bogli- 
poor and the sea. 

150, 1. Hoogley. The only one of the delta branches of 
the Ganges held sacred by the Hindoos. 



322 NOTES 

2. A prince. The Nabob of Bengal. 

3. The Mogul. A name given to ruling Emperor of India 
by Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane. 

4. Black Hole. The Nabob confined 146 prisoners in a 
room twenty feet square, June 18, 1756. The room had but two 
small windows, these opening on a verandah. Of the prisoners 
only twenty-three survived the night. See Clive, pp. 66-68. 

151, 1. " Treason." Meer Jaffier, rival of Surajah Dowlah, 
was afterward aided by Clive to become Nabob of Bengal when 
Surajah Dowlah was defeated at Plassey, 1757. 

2. Expedition commanded by Clive. See Clive, p. 69. 

153, 1. Rotten boroughs. Until well into the nineteenth 
century parliamentary representation was so unfairly adjusted 
that an old tree might send a representative to parliament, while 
a large city, if of modern growth, was absolutely unrepresented. 
See accounts in English history of various reform bills of nine- 
teenth century. 

156, 1. Pagodas. A gold coin, valued at $1.94. 

157, 1. The long voyage in an Indiaman. The trip around 
Good Hope took the ships for India seldom less than six months, 
often nearly a year. 

159, 1. Clive. See Macaulay's Essay on Clive, a man even 
greater than Hastings, founder of the British Empire in India. 

Two governments. Clive had left the nominal power in the 
hands of the Nabob, who was, however, tributary to the Com- 
pany, the actual ruler, having absolute power, while feigning to 
be vassals. 

160, 1. Augustulus to Odoacer. The last Roman Emperor, 
a weakling in the hands of his great general Odoacer. The last 
Merovingian Kings of France dominated by the great Carlo- 
vingian generals, Charles Martel and Pepin, founders of Carlo- 
vingian line of kings. 

2. Cadet. A junior clerk or employee. 

166, 1. Agents in Leadenhall Street. The home of the East 
India Company. 

172, 1. Rupee. A silver coin worth about two shillings. 

2. The Great Mogul. Ruler of India. 

3. Oude. One of the rich provinces of Northern India, 
now a British province. 

173, 1. Nabob. Originally a native prince; later used of 
any one who had amassed wealth in India. 

174, 1. The cross of Saint George. The flag of England, 
carried beyond the Punjab to Ghesni in 1839. 

. 175, 1. Catherine's claim to Poland. A lasting blot on the 
fame of Russia was her partition of Poland without a shadow of 



NOTES 323 

right in 1772-1795. In Catherine's phrase Poland became her 
"door mat " upon which she stepped when visiting the West. 

182, 1. Letters of Junius. A series of brilhant and intensely 
bitter attacks upon the government, which appeared in the 
Public Advertiser, 1769-1772. Their author is not known. 

2. Lord Chatham. William Pitt, one of England's greatest 
statesmen. See Greene's History of the English People. 

184, 1. Woodfall. A printer and parhamentary reporter, 
prosecuted for publishing the Letters of Junius. 

185, 1. Old Sarum. One of the "rotten boroughs" before 
mentioned, sending two representatives to parliament, though 
uninhabited. Disfranchised by the Reform Bill of 1832. 

186, 1. Elijah Impey. An old acquaintance of Hastings. 
See p. 193. 

2. Twenty-one guns. A royal salute. 

187, 1. The disputes of the Mahratta government, bringing 
about the first Mahratta war. 

189, 1. Gates, inventor of an alleged plot to kill King 
Charles II; Gates and his accompHces were proven perjurors 
but not till many innocent people had been executed. Known 
in history as the Popish Plot. 

190, 1. The Munny Begum. The queen mother. Seep. 239. 

194, 1. A Brahmin of the Brahmins. A member of the 
highest caste among the Hindoos; one whose person was sacred, 
no matter what his offense. 

195, 1. The Mahommedan historian. Hardly any one but 
Macaulay would have investigated so far. Gnly one instance in 
many of his untiring efforts to secure historical accuracy by ex- 
amining every possible authority. 

197, 1. Impey. The tool of Hastings in this conviction. 

200, 1. Jones' Persian Grammar. See p. 251 for mention of 
Hastings' interest in the study of Griental languages. 

201, 1. Lord North. Minister who lost the American Colo- 
nies to England. 

208, 1. Mayor of the palace. A term originally used to des- 
ignate the officials who, under the Merovingian kings, held the 
real power in France. 

209, 1. A treaty between France and the Mahrattas. See 
Essay on Clive for account of former troubles with French in 
India. 

210, 1. The brave and unfortunate Lally. A French gen- 
eral, defeated at Pondicherry, unjustly condemned and executed 
in France. 

213, 1. English law is neither cheap nor speedy. See 
Dickens' Bleak House for a full exposure of this fact. 



324 NOTES 

215, 1. Alguazil. A Spanish term for an inferior officer of 
justice. 

218, ] . " Rich, quiet and infamous." An excellent definition 
of Impey's character. 

2. Jeffreys. The brutal judge who conducted the trials after 
Monmouth's rebellion, 1685, in the "Bloody Assizes." 

3. Regulating Act. Passed by Parliament in 1773. Pro- 
vided for a new law court at Calcutta, called the Supreme Court; 
made the Governor of Bengal (Warren Hastings) Governor- 
General of India and named a council of four to advise him. 
This act was thought necessary in order to prevent mismanage- 
ment in India and the evils attending it. 

221, 1. "A far more formidable danger." For the second 
time this is hinted at, but not yet explained. 

222, 1. Lewis the Eleventh. One of the greatest French kings 
(1461-1483), "a perfect Ulysses in craft and deceit," who finally 
broke the power of the great nobles. 

2. " The most formidable enemy," not only in his own 
ability but also in the fact of alliance with France, thus uniting 
the powers of Southern India against the English stations of 
Madras, Calcutta and Bombay. 

228, 1. " The House of Tamerlane." See note 34, 1. 

2. " No such constitution." India was a vast agglomeration 
of states, each nominally independent, yet some tributary to each 
other and most bound by some agreement or understanding to 
the Company; but ready at any moment to dissolve or ignore 
the agreement. 

3. Hugh Capet. Duke of France, founder of the Capetian 
dynasty. Consult French history for an explanation of conditions 
at that time. Anderson's A New Manual of General History. 

4. Charles X. A bhnd, stubborn Bourbon, exiled for his 
despotism. His conduct gave rise to the saying "A Bourbon 
learns nothing and forgets nothing." 

230, 1. This legerdemain. Trickery and deception. 

233, 1. Benares. On the Ganges River, 390 miles northwest 
of Calcutta. One of the most ancient and renowned cities of the 
world. 

245, 1. " The time was approaching." Pitt's India Bill of 
1784, brought the Company directly under a Board of Control in 
England, and gave Parliament a right to interfere when such 
disgraceful acts as the Rohilla War and the treatment of the 
Begums blackened the name of England. Heretofore the Com- 
pany had been a private enterprise and so practically beyond 
reach so long as it was guilty of no crime against the government. 

249, 1. Downing Street. The principal building in this 



NOTES 325 

street was given by George I to Sir Robert Walpole who accepted 
it for his office of First Lord of the Treasury. It has since been 
the official residence of successive Prime Ministers, and has made 
the street in which it stands the official street of the English gov- 
ernment. 

2. Somerset House. A building in the Strand, London, de- 
voted to the accommodation of government and semi-public 
offices. 

252, 1. A far more virtuous ruler. The Sir William Ben- 
tinck so highly lauded in the last sentence of the Essay on Clive. 

253, 1. Pundits. Brahmin scholars. 

256, 1. Zemindars. Revenue officers. 

2. Carlton House. Residence of the Prince of Wales. 

257, L Lac. Hindoo numeral equivalent to one hundred 
thousand. 

258, L Sir Charles Grandison. The immaculate hero of 
Richardson's novel by that name; a favorite book of Macaulay's. 

259, L Burke gave notice. No statesman was ever more 
devotedly the champion of the oppressed than was Edmund 
Burke. India and America alike owe much gratitude to him. 

260, 1. In India he had a bad hand. A good example of 
Macaulay's use of analogy to explain conditions. 

264, 1. The opposition. A term used to designate the mem- 
bers of Parhament opposed to the ministry. At the beginning 
of a ministry the minority. 

2. Brooks's. A Whig club. 

265, 1. Pharisaical ostentation. Macaulay never Hked Philip 
Francis. 

266, 1. Fall of the coalition. The friends of Fox and those 
of Lord North joined in forming what is known as the coalition 
ministry; but this did not last long^ as it proposed a law about 
the government of India which offended many people and led 
the King to turn it out of office. 

267, 1. His knowledge of India. Few other men, possibly 
none save Macaulay himself, possessed so vast a fund of informa- 
tion on all subjects, or so great a power of vivid presentation, as 
did Burke. 

268, 1. Mecca. The holy city of the Moslems in Arabia; 
the birthplace of Mohammed. 

2. St. James's Streeet. A fashionable London street. 

3. Lord George Gordon. The leader of a mob which pil- 
laged London in 1780. See Dickens' Barnaby Rudge; Dr. Dodd, 
a fashionable London preacher, executed for forgery in 1771. 

270, 1. Sensibility. Meaning emotion or sympathy. 
2. Made a bridge of gold. Used money. 



326 NOTES 

273, 1. The star of the Bath. A high order, ranking almost 
with that of the Garter, given in appreciation of special service 
was a mark of royal favor. 

2. Sworn of the privy council. Made a member of the 
king's personal advisory body. 

276, 1. Works of supererogation. Voluntary deeds or works 
of piety or charity, beyond one's duty, in hopes that they may 
serve to cancel former sins. 

277, 1. Wilber force. Afriendof Pitt; a bitter opponent of the 
slave trade. 

279, 1. Prorogation. Adjournment of ParHament. 

2. Spoliation of the Begiuns. See p. 239. 

3. Sheridan. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a brilliant orator 
and author of the well-known plays, The Rivals and The School 
for Scandal. 

280, 1. Cougfied and scraped down. The members of 
ParHament take care that an offensive measure shall not get a 
fair hearing, even though its proposer may have the floor. 

2. To go before the Lords. The House impeaches, the 
Lords try the case. (This is the most famous portion of the 
speech, and one of the finest historical word pictures ever written.) 

283, 1. The great hall of William Rufus. Westminster 
Hall, one of the noblest examples of early Roman building, was 
erected by William II, called Rufus. It is now a part of the new 
hall of Parliament. 

2. Bacon. Impeached and convicted for taking bribes, in 
the reign of James I; Somers, Chancellor under William III, 
acquitted, not on his merits, but through a difference between 
the Lords and Commons as to methods of procedure; Strafford, 
unjustly executed under Charles I, who afterward met the same 
death. 

284, 1, Siddons. Sarah Siddons, the greatest tragic actress 
of her day, then at the height of her fame; Historian of the 
Roman Empire, Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire; Cicero against Verres, the great Roman orator 
impeached Verres, Praetor of Sicily, on charges not unHke those 
against Hastings, though of far graver nature; The greatest 
painter. Sir Joshua Reynolds, famous for his portraits of beauti- 
ful women; The greatest scholar, Dr. Samuel Parr, who, though 
now forgotten, had an extraordinary reputation for scholarship. 
See DeQuincey's Essay on Dr. Samuel Parr; Heir to the throne 
had plighted his faith, Mrs. Fitzherbert, morganatic wife of the 
Prince of Wales. Her CathoHc faith made the marriage contrary 
to law by the Royal Marriage Act, 1772. (Note Macaulay's use 
of particular terms to support his general statements.) Beauti- 



NOTES 327 

f ul mother of a beautiful race, Mrs. Sheridan, painted by Rey- 
nolds as St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music; Mrs. Montague, a 
famous English hostess, whose salon was frequented by the fore- 
most men of the day; Duchess of Devonshire, one of the loveliest 
women of the day; a friend of Fox for whom it is said she bought 
votes by kisses. 

285, 1. Mens aequa in arduis. A mind unmoved amid diffi- 
culties. 

286, 1. Wearing a bag and sword. No gentleman of fashion 
considered himself dressed for any ceremonious occasion unless 
he wore his sword, and a wig with a bag to hold the back hair. 

2. Fox and Sheridan. Among the greatest debaters and ora- 
tors of the day. Cicero ranks Hyperides, whose name alone now 
survives, as second only to Demosthenes. 

287, 1. William Windham. A man of great talents and rare 
gifts, yet one who made no mark in history; The youngest man- 
ager, Grey, head of the Ministry which carried the Reform Bill 
of 1832, of whom it was said that no more honorable man ever 
lived. 

2. The morning sun. All night sessions are by no means 
uncommon, as the session does not begin till 4 p. m. 

288, 1. Their taste and sensibility. Only natural in an age 
which enjoyed the sentimentality of Clarissa Harlowe and Sir 
Charles Grandison. 

294, 1. In 1789. When Burke alone opposed the French 
Revolution. 

295, 1. Woolsack. In order to keep well in mind the fact 
that wool was one of the sources of natural wealth, sacks of wool 
were placed in the House of Lords as seats for the Judges. To 
this day the seat of the Lord Chancellor is called " the woolsack." 

301, 1. A coronet and a red riband. Distinguished services 
were ordinarily rewarded by knighthood, and investment with 
some honorary order. 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 



LORD MACAULAY 



LIFE AND WORKS 



1. Give some details of Macaulay's early life. 2. Anecdotes 
illustrating his precocity. 3. Incidents showing his early love 
for books and reading. 4. Some details of his wonderful memory 
and his capacity for taking in at a glance the contents of a printed 
page. {Trevelyan's Life, Vol. I, ch. i.) 5. His career at Cam- 
bridge University. 6. The study of law and his literary work 
for Knight's Quarterly Magazine. 7. Incidents which led Ma- 
caulay to write his essay on Milton for the Edinburgh Review — 
its success. 8. Mention the subjects of Macaulay's most im- 
portant essays contributed for many years to the same peri- 
odical. 9. What are the chief characteristics of these celebrated 
essays? 10. What political honors were conferred upon Ma- 
caulay? 11, His appointment to an office in India and his 
residence in that country. 12. His return to England and 
subsequent career in Parliament. 13. What fine martial ballads 
were published in 1842? 14. When was his History first pub- 
lished? — its success? 15. Give some details of the scope of this 
work. 16. What can you tell of Macaulay's career as a public 
speaker? 17. The death of the great historian in 1859? 18. Ma- 
caulay's style — its prominent characteristics? 19. What ad- 
verse criticisms have been made on his writings? 20. How 
will you account for the remarkable popularity of all that 
Macaulay has written? 21. Personal life of Macaulay — its 
chief characteristics? 22. Incidents and anecdotes to illustrate 
the same. 23. Macaulay's opinion of famous men and books. 
(Cf . Trevelyan.) 

328 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 329 

ESSAY ON CLIVE 
Occasion for Writing Essay 

^ 1. What was the actual civilization in Mexico and Peru at the 
time of their conquest by Spain? 

2. Give illustrations from these paragraphs of Macaulay's 
preference for specific details rather than the abstract statement 
under which these details come. What does he gain by it? 

3. Judging from the fault he finds with Orme and Mill, what 
do you consider to be his behef as to the requisites of a good his- 
tory? 

4. What are the essentials of a good biography? Compare 
your opinion with that stated by Carlyle in the opening para- 
graphs of his Essay on Burns. 

Ancestry and Character 

1. What is the topic sentence of the paragraph beginning on 
page 26? How is it developed? 

2. Explain the term " such slender parts " (page 27). 

The East India Company 

1. Read Chap. XVIII in Macaulay's History of England and 
from that and the account given here write an account of the 
early history of the East India Company. 

2. "Infringe the monopoly "; explain. 

3. "The rapidity of the prophet's gourd "; explain the signifi- 
cance of this allusion. 

4. "The voyage by the Cape." How is the journey from 
England to India made to-day? 

Olive's Early Experiences 

1. Select from these paragraphs, examples of balanced struc- 
ture and explain why they are used. 

2. What is shown of his character in these early days? 

The Struggle for India 

1. "Even then the first of maritime powers." What naval 
battles had England won? How does her navy, to-day, compare 
with ours? 

2. "On parole"; explain. 



330 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

3. What right had Dupleix to overrule the orders of Labour- 
donnais? Locate Mauritius. 

4. Does page 34 disprove the assertions made elsewhere by 
Macaulay and others that India is poor? Reasons for your 
answer. 

5. Point out examples of explanation by comparison with 
known objects. 

6. " The vices of Oriental despotism." What are they? 

7. " The vices inseparable from the dominion of race over race." 
Give examples of these from the history of the United States. 

8. What is the purpose of the paragraph at the bottom of 
page 35? 

9. " Feudal privileges "; explain. 

10. From pages 37 and 38, comment on Macaulay 's sentence 
structure, and especially on his use of long and short sentences. 

11. What is the purpose of the questions in the last half of 
page 39? 

12. " From Cape Cormorin to the eternal snows of the Him- 
alayas." State in other words. Which is the better form? 
Why? Give other examples of the same usage in this paragraph. 

13. " Confounded the confusion." Explain meaning, and state 
in your own words how it was done. 

14. What is Dupleix's ambition? Why does Macaulay speak 
so harshly of him and not of Clive, who does practically the same 
things? 

15. Analyze the paragraph beginning at the foot of page 44. 
Purpose of the last sentence? 

16. In the last paragraph on page 47 what is the topic? Where 
stated? how developed? What, in Clive, won his men? 

17. Page 52, "Induced ... by a just and profound poUcy." 
Explain what it was. 

18. Page 56, sentence beginning line 16. Rearrange to secure 
better order. 

19. Sum up Clive's work in a well-constructed paragraph, 
imitating, as far as possible, Macaulay's style, both as to choice 
of words, and as to sentence structure. 



First Return to England 

1. What traits of character were displayed by his actions in 
his relations with the Company, with his family, in his private 
life, his public career? 

2. How had he fulfilled the promise of his boyhood? 

3. " Calumny and chicanery " (page 61) ; explain. 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 331 

The Subjugation of Bengal 

1 . What is the topic of paragraph beginning on page 62? Ana- 
lyze the paragraph, indicating the method of development. 

2. Explain the CastiUan proverb. Show how it applies to the 
Bengalese. 

3. "Oriental despots are the worst class of human beings." 
Why? Give other proof of the truth of this statement. 

4. Criticise the sentence structure in paragraphs beginning on 
pages 66 and 67. Why are so many short sentences used? 

5. Criticise Clive's action in makuig terms with Surajah Dow- 
lah, instead of punishing him. 

6. ''The substituting of documents and the counterfeiting of 
hands"; explain. To what episode does Macaulay refer? 

7. What excuse is there for Clive's treatment of Omichund? 
Is the excuse a justification? Why? 

8. Why is Plassey ranked among the decisive battles of the 

world? r T^ • i 1 

9. What, in Macaulay's opinion, is the real secret of British 
power in India? Is he right? Read Kipling's The White Man's 
Burden. 

10. Explain the figure in sentence beginning line 29, page 85. 
What is the purpose of making the next paragraph separate in- 
stead of uniting it with the previous one? 

11. Does the paragraph at the middle of page 87 prove India a 
rich colony? Why? 

12. What does Macaulay find to blame in Clive's conduct? 

13. Page 90, ''By implication at least"; explain. 

14. Page 90, " So unfortunate as to be born in the purple." Ex- 
plain. 

15. Page 94, " The great army . . . melted away." What fig- 
ure is used? What is signified by it? 

16. Why does Macaulay justify Clive for accepting the quit- 
rent? 

Second Return to England 

1. Page 97, "Since the death of Wolfe." When and where? 

2. What cause had England to be proud of Clive, rather than 
of the other generals mentioned? 

3. Page 100, "The power of the Company is an anomaly." Ex- 
plain. When and how was this anomaly brought to an end? 

4. "Mounted by the regular gradations" (page 101). What 
were they? 

5. "Above a year and a half" (page 103). What is the pres- 
ent usage for this idea? 



332 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

6. Show how the Company was responsible for the misdeeds 
of its servants. 

7. " Cruelty was not among the vices of the Company " (page 
104). Comment on this in the light of the rest of the paragraph. 

8. Explain lines 11-12, page 105; line 17. 

9. What progress has England made toward the ideal nation 
spoken of by the Mussulman historian on page 106? 

10. What was the real cause of the directors' anxiety about 
India? 

Final Wohk in India 

1. Was Clive in any way responsible for the conditions in 
India? 

2. Explain lines 23-25, page 110. 

3. Page 111, "A mistaken policy." Why mistaken? 

4. Page HI, " This practice had been seriously injurious to the 
commercial interests of the corporation." How? 

5. State in your own words Clive's reasons for appropriating 
to the support of the service the monopoly of salt, 

6. Page 117, last sentence. Criticise the order. 

Final Return to England 

1. What is the structure of the last sentence, page 120? How 
is it kept a unit? 

2. Page 120, "Raised the price of rotten boroughs." Explain. 

3. Why was Clive so well hated? 

Retrospect 

1. Give examples of parallel structure. 

2. In what respects has his name a right to a place "in the list 
of those who have done and suffered much for the happiness of 
mankind?" 



GENERAL TOPICS FOR PARAGRAPHS 

1. Show how Clive's career in India fulfilled the promise of his 
boyhood. 

2. Tell the story of the Sepoy Mutiny, after which the Com- 
pany's power came to an end. 

3. Explain the present government of India. 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 333 

4. How do conditions in India differ from those in England's 
other colonies? 

5. Compare the work and character of Clive and of Hastings. 

6. Prove that England is or is not justified in holding India. 

7. Compare conditions in India with those in the American 
colonies prior to the Revolution. 

8. Discuss Macaulay's style. 

9. Discuss Macaulay's power of making a vivid picture. 

10. Sketch the rise and fall of the East India Company. 



ESSAY ON HASTINGS 
Occasion for the Essay 

1. What does Macaulay state as his opinion of Hastings* 
character? 

2. What does he consider the fault of Mr. Gleig's biography? 
What should his own sketch contain? 

Hastings' Ancestry 

1. What characteristics does he find in the Hastings' ancestry? 

2. What sort of character would you expect from such par- 
entage? 

Education 

1. What were the chief traits of character shown in his child- 
hood? 

2. Give an accoxmt of Cowper, his schoolmate. 

3. Explain "the doctrine of human depravity" (page 148). 

4. What is implied in lines 6-10, page 148? 

5. What do lines 11-17 suggest as to Impey's character? 

6. What evidences, in his boyhood, of traits which might 
lead to greatness? 

Beginning of His Work for the Company 

1. Locate on the map the various places mentioned. 

2. Sketch the history of the East India Company. 

3. Give an account of the trouble with the French in India. 

4. Give an account of the various peoples making up the in- 
habitants of India. 

5. Explain the caste system among the Hindoos. 



334 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

6. Who was the "Mogul," and why so called? 

7. Give a brief account of the work done by Clive in India. 

8. From bottom of page 151 to top of 154, what is the theme? 
Criticise the unity of the paragraph. 

9. Point out examples in above of Macaulay's use of the con- 
crete, the particular, instead of the abstract, general statement. 

10. Explain why a statesman would not be a freebooter; a 
plunderer of the people. 

First Return to England 

1. What traits of character are shown during his stay in 
England? 

2. Give brief account of Dr. Johnson. 

The Meeting with " Fair Marion " 

1. What excuse is there for Baroness Imhoff? 

2. What means does Macaulay use to justify Hastings? 

Rise of Hastings' Power 

1. How had "the servants of the Company ceased to be clerks, 
and had become warriors and negotiators " ? 

2. State, in your own words, the nature of the government of 
Bengal at this time. 

3. What are the powers of the Viceroy in India to-day? 

4. Explain the meaning of "political" and "diplomatic," 
showing why they are not synonymous. 

5. Explain the words " important, lucrative and splendid " as 
they apply to the office of native minister of Bengal. 

6. Explain the term "Maharajah." 

7. Explain the term "high and pure caste." 

8. State in your own words the meaning of lines 7-9, page 163, 
Why has Macaulay chosen this way to state it? Give another 
instance of the same method in this paragraph. 

9. Describe the character of the Bengalee, showing why the 
English find it so difficult to comprehend. 

10. Why does Macaulay consider India a poor country? 
What is your opinion as to what makes a nation rich? For what 
do the colonies of England spend their revenues to-day? What 
use was the Company making of India? 

11. Why were "the Company's instructions in perfect con- 
formity with his own views" on the matter of removing Ma- 
hommed Reza Khan? 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 335 

12. Explain the change made by Hastings in the government 
of Bengal. Show where it was for the better. 

13. Explain why Nuncomar was so angry. 

Sale of Allahabad and Lorah 

1. What is implied as to Hastings' character by his "funda- 
mental proposition " ? Does Macaulay's excuse justify him for it? 

The Infamy of Rohilcund 

1. What does history show as to the character of mountaineers? 

2. Locate Rohilcund, and describe the Rohillas. 

3. What figures of speech are used in lines 2-10, page 176? 

4. What justification is there for Hastings' conduct? 

5. Why does Macaulay consider this infamous? 

6. What rhetorical device does Macaulay use in the paragraph 
at the bottom of page 176? 

7. Would it have been possible to obtain money by honest 
means? 

The Regulating Act and Its Results 

1. State in your own words the terms of the Act. 

2. Show how it altered existing conditions. 

3. Characterize Philip Francis. 

4. What do you gather to be Macaulay's feeling toward him? 

5. What were the Letters of Junius? 

6. What caused the rivalry between Francis and Hastings? 

7. Justify by results Hastings' unwillingness to give over to 
the Council the government of Bengal. 

8. Why does Macaulay lay so much stress on "Asiatic men- 
dacity" on page 188? 

Struggle Between Hastings and Nuncomar 

1. What had caused Nuncomar's grudge of seventeen years? 

2. Had the terms of the Regulating Act given the Council con- 
trol over the Governor? 

3. Explain Nuncomar's mistake. 

4. "Idiots and biographers excepted." To whom is the ref- 
erence? What is its implication? 

5. Why was Nuncomar's execution illegal? 

6. What made his execution so terrible, in the eyes of the 
Bengalese? 



336 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

7. Why does Macaulay blame Impey for that for which he 
excuses Hastings? 

8. What justification does he find for Hastings? 

Trouble in England 

1. Point out the injustice in the Directors' conduct. 

2. What had been the terms on which Hastings gave his res- 
ignation to Macleane? How far was Macleane justified? 

3. Justify Hastings in his refusal to withdraw. 

4. Why is Hastings so confident of the verdict of the Supreme 
Court? Show the wisdom of his act. 

5. Criticise his action toward Clavering. 

Foreign Complications 

1. In what wars was England engaged at this time? 

2. Characterize the Mahrattas. 

3. Explain line 12, page 208. 

Evils of the Supreme Court 

1. What had been the powers given this court by the Regu- 
lating Act? 

2. Explain why a code of laws for one country cannot be 
transplanted to another? 

3. Justify Hastings in bribing rather than fighting Impey. 

4. What analogy does Macaulay use to justify Hastings' 
conduct? 

5. What excuse had Hastings for his opinion of Francis? 

Trouble with Hyder Ali 

1. What were the measures he had taken to break the power 
of the Mahrattas? 

2. What rhetorical device is used in paragraph starting line 15, 
page 221? 

3. Locate on the map the places mentioned. 

4. "The struggle with Hyder was a struggle for Hfe or death." 
Give reasons. 

Subjugation of Cheyte Sing 

1. Describe Benares. 

2. Describe the condition of government in India at this time. 

3. Explain " a government de /acto and a government de jure." 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 337 

4. What is the ultimate effect of such action as that men- 
tioned in paragraph beginning at the middle of page 229? Has it 
been proven so in the case of India? 

5. What was Hastings' plan with regard to Cheyte Sing? 

6. Why was Benares particularly hostile to the English? 

The Extortion from the Begums 

1. Compare the robbery of the Begums with the affair of Ro- 
hilcund. Are these two stains on Hastings' name in any way to 
be excused or justified? 

2. Why did not Hastings torture the women themselves, in- 
stead of their innocent servants? 

3. Compare the crimes of Hastings with those of Impey. 
Why has Macaulay no excuse for Impey? 

4. Why had not the English government interfered? 

^ 5. Have we any case in our own century where a so-called 
civilized country has perpetrated like crimes? 

Summary of Hastings' Work 

1. Enumerate the grave crimes of Hastings' administration 
against the pubHc service. Had he committed any crimes against 
the Company or done any public service for India? Could a ser- 
vice for one compensate for a crime against the other? 

2. What grounds has Macaulay for considering him one of 
the most remarkable men in English history? 

Return to England 

1. What right had the government to impeach a servant of a 
private company? 

2. What claims had Hastings on the government? 

3. Give a brief sketch of the career of Edmund Burke. Why 
was he especially fitted to lead the attack on Hastings? 

4. What debt do Americans owe him? 

The Impeachment and Trial 

1. Explain in your own words the inconsistency of Pitt's ac- 
tion. 

2. Why should Pitt be jealous of Hastings? 

3. Give brief account of Sheridan. 

4. Explain why the paragraph starting at the bottom of page 



338 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

282 has received so much praise. Point out its merits in point 
of style. What evidence does it afford of Macaulay's scholarship? 

5. Comment on Hastings' conduct at the trial. 

6. What was the real punishment? 

Outcome of the Trial 

1. Comment on the means used by Hastings to win public 
favor. 

2. How much better off "in character" was he by reason of 
his acquittal? 

Last Days 

1. What had been his boyhood ambition? 

2. What traits of his boyhood reappear in his old age? 

3. Why does Macaulay think him worthy of a place in West- 
minster? 

4. Compare Macaulay's estimate of him with your own. 



GENERAL 
I. Subject-Matter 

1. Outhne work done by Hastings in India. 

2. Give proof of his statesmanship. 

3. Give proof that he believed that the end justified the means. 

4. Explain the nature of the East India Company; locate 
their chief stations; tell how their power was brought to a close. 

5. Explain the divisions and governments of India at the time 
of Hastings, naming and locating chief states. 

6. Why has not England given India the same government as 
Australia or Canada? 

7. Describe government of India of to-day. 

8. Explain what England owed to Hastings. 

9. Characterize Hastings as a man. 

10. Explain why he failed in England. 

11. Justify his impeachment. 

11. Style 

1. Cite instances proving that Macaulay is at his best in por- 
traying dramatic scenes. 

2. Cite instances showing his vast information. 



EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 339 

3. Cite instances showing his personal knowledge of India. 

4. Cite instances showing his partiality. 

5. Discuss his sentence structure, his favorite type of sentence, 
his use of long and short sentences. 

6. Quote passages showing his use of particulars. 

7. Quote passages showing his power of vivid presentation. 

8. Outhne and criticise one of his argumentative passages. 

9. Discuss his use of figures. 

10. What makes his style so clear? 



FEB IS 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



r£B ik IS^Cf 



